High bandwidth data transport system

ABSTRACT

The present invention provides for a methods, system, and apparatus relating to data transmission. One method of the present invention includes representing data using at least one pulse based on a Gaussian wave form, sending the at least one pulse over an electrically conductive guided media, and recovering the data from the at least one pulse. The present invention can be used in conjunction with telephony applications, cable tv applications, and data bus applications.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

[0001] This application is a conversion of and claims priority to priorU.S. Provisional Patent Applications, Serial No. 60/376,592 entitledHIGH NUMBER BASED ENCODED ULTRA WIDEBAND OVER GUIDED AND NON-GUIDEDNARROW BAND RADIO filed on Apr. 30, 2002 and Ser. No. 60/441,348,entitled HIGH-BANDWIDTH DATA TRANSPORT SYSTEM, filed on Jan. 20, 2003.This application is also a continuation-in-part of Ser. No. 09/698,793entitled METHOD OF TRANSMITTING DATA INCLUDING A STRUCTURED LINEARDATABASE, filed on Oct. 27, 2000, all of which are herein incorporatedby reference in their entirety.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

[0002] The present invention relates generally to a system, method andapparatus for increasing the bandwidth of guided line networks usingparticular types of pulse transmissions. In particular, the presentinvention relates to the use of pulses to transmit data over guidedlines, such as, but not limited to, coaxial cable, telephone twistedpair, Category 5 cable, power lines, other conductive mediums, such asbut not limited to, metallic car and truck bodies, ship and submarinehulls, decks and bulkheads, aircraft fuselages, structural steel,missile bodies, tank bodies, water pipes, etc., and non-metallicmediums, such as but not limited to, the human body, etc., non-guidednarrow band wireless carrier signals, or any combinations of the above,including hybrid networks which use the present invention in conjunctionwith fiber optic and/or non-guided wireless networks.

PROBLEMS IN THE ART

[0003] There are several trends in society that are creating anunprecedented need for bandwidth by consumers and businesses. Some ofthese result from the advent of the “digital age.” Today, digitallyencoded music can be played on MP3 and Compact Disc (CD) playersdesigned for portable use, in automobiles, and homes. Digitally encodedvoice is commonplace technology for cell phones and other forms ofwireless telephones. Digitally encoded video can be watched from DigitalVersatile Disk players (DVD), Direct Broadcast Satellite (DBS)Receivers, Personal Video Recorders (TiVo), digital camcorders and HighDefinition Televisions (HDTV). In addition, machines using digitallyencoded data, such as the Personal Computer, and game stations, such as,XBox, Playstation 2 and Nintendo 64 are now ubiquitous.

[0004] The rise of the Internet and networks has provided ubiquitousconnectivity for businesses and consumers alike, but are beingconstrained by the lack of true broadband availability. In December1995, there were 16 million Internet connections worldwide. By August of2001, that number had grown to 513 million.

[0005] Also, the demand for broadband connectivity continues to grow.This is a result of the increased number of users accessing remotesources of digitally encoded data and data intensive applications.Initially, Internet content was largely text-based and provided limitedamount of services. However, the Internet has grown to provide morebandwidth intensive content filled with pictures, graphics, and videoclips. In the future, the increase of available bandwidth will enablehigher quality Internet content such as full motion video, entertainmentquality video, streaming video and audio.

[0006] Even though there is currently a glut of high-speed fiber opticbackbone capacity, with an overall utilization rate of only 3% to 5%,the access network, or what is commonly referred to as the “last mile”,simply cannot keep pace with the need and desire for higher speed accessto larger amounts of digital information.

[0007] There are many individuals and organizations who view the need toprovide broadband connectivity as a matter of national importance. TheTechnology Network (TechNet), an organization of CEOs from the nation'sleading technology companies, has called on the federal government toadopt a goal of 100 megabits per second to 100 million homes and smallbusinesses by 2010. TechNet states, “If most Americans had high speedInternet access, whether by wire line, wireless, satellite or cable,consumers could benefit from access to multimedia, interactive distancelearning, increased telecommuting, higher productivity, easierinteraction with government, improved health care services, andon-demand entertainment. Currently, the vast majority of so-called“broadband” connections (i.e. Cable Modem and DSL) operate at less than2 megabytes per second.

[0008] The Internet currently is built with many components capable ofproviding bandwidth at very high data transmission rates. However, themajor impediment to the delivery of high-bandwidth Internet content andservices is the transmission constraints from the major Internet pipesto the customer's home or business, also known as the “last mile.”

[0009] Today, there are four basic technologies used for “last mile”access: fiber, telephone twisted pair, cable, and wireless. To put thesetechnologies in perspective, the following chart compares the maximumbandwidth available with a number of common Layer 1 and 2 technologies(Layer 2 technologies are shown in italics). CHART 1 TECHNOLOGY ANDMAXIMUM BAND WIDTH TECHNOLOGY MAXIMUM BANDWIDTH Fiber Optics  10 Gbps(and beyond with DWDM) Laser  1 Gbps Ethernet  1 Gbps ATM 622 Mbps (andbeyond) Microwave 155 Mbps Satellite 155 Mbps (experimental 622 Mbps)Ultra Wideband 100 Mbps LMDS 100 Mbps TechNet's Recommendation 100Mbps/Home or Small Business VDSL  52 Mbps Cable codecs  30 Mbps ADSL  9Mbps HDSL  2 Mbps E1 leased line  2 Mbps ISDN PRI  2 Mbps Frame Relay  2Mbps, 45 Mbps - specs up to 622 Mbps ISDN BRI 128 Kbps Analog codecs  56Kbps

[0010] FIBER OPTIC BROADBAND SOLUTIONS—In the past few years there havebeen dramatic changes in the capacity of these “last mile” accesstechnologies. As shown in Chart 1, fiber optic networks have thegreatest long-term promise to provided substantial broadbandconnectivity. Wave Division Multiplexing (WDM) and Dense Wave DivisionMultiplexing (DWDM) are technologies that divide the optical beam on asingle fiber strand into its component colors (different wavelengths).Equipment manufacturers are increasing wavelength channel rates up to 40Gbps. Each individual wavelength can carry as much information aspreviously passed through the entire fiber strand.

[0011] One of the main attractions of WDM and DWDM is they can beinstalled on existing fiber without digging it up, which means lowerinstallation costs for additional capacity. This technology is alreadyhaving an influence on lowering the cost of long-haul transport, but hasyet to make an impact in “last mile” connectivity, largely due to thehigh cost of laying fiber to the building.

[0012] Even though fiber to the building is not a cost-effectivenear-term solution for providing broadband connectivity to the businessor consumers, other “last mile” technologies including wireless,telephone twisted pair, and cable are evolving as stop-gap measures toovercome this need.

[0013] Wireless Broadband Solutions—There are a number of technologiesthat fall under the wireless broadband heading. These includetechnologies such as LMDS (Local Multipoint Distribution Service), MMDS(Multi-channel Multipoint Distribution Service), point-to-point radioand multipoint/multi-hop radio, microwave, laser, and satellite systems.

[0014] Microwave is a fixed wireless broadband technology. With capacityof up to 155 Mbps and a range of 3-60 miles, microwave is very effectivefor transmission to remote locations. Many private companies,universities and alternate carriers have deployed microwave transmissionservices where it is not economically feasible to install fiber orutilize transmission services from incumbent providers.

[0015] Microwave services face a number of challenges. First, microwaverequires line of sight placement of transmitter and receiver, whichoften means obtaining planning permission for transmitters. Secondly,service providers are restricted to bands of frequencieslicensed/allocated by the government, and acquiring spectrum is anexpensive proposition. Finally, weather-related interference,particularly in the form of rain, can impact service. Error-correctivetechniques can be used to compensate for bad weather, but this involvesincreasing power and/or decreasing cell size. Microwave tends to be asolution for business, rather than the consumer.

[0016] Local Multipoint Distribution System (LMDS) is a microwavewireless technology that can deliver up to 100 Mbps per customer site.This is a point-to-multipoint distribution service, which utilizesmicrowave radio technology in the 25 GHz and higher frequency bands.However, it is constrained, in that it requires line-of-site between thecentral hub LMDS node and the customer's building, with a maximumdistance of up to 5 km. One of the key advantages of LMDS (and otherwireless technologies) is its' rapid deployment capabilities. However,LMDS is a line-of-sight technology, and is susceptible to rain fade.

[0017] Wireless radio systems often have to overcome interference causedby multi-path signal propagation. Technology from Cisco Systems andothers, however, is overcoming the multi-path-interference problemcaused by foliage and increasing the bandwidth possible withnon-line-of-sight receivers. Cisco's technology, called VectorOrthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing, only increases overallbandwidth by a mere 20 percent.

[0018] Satellite transmissions utilize radio frequencies, usually in themicrowave range, and can operate in either a one- or two-way mode.Satellites can be used to deliver digital services to geographicallydistributed, remote locations that fixed wire lines can't reach. It'sideally suited to difficult terrain, such as the outback. Servicesinclude multipoint broadcasts as well as point-to-point delivery.

[0019] One of the key issues for satellite transmission is thepropagation delay, which can range from 250 to 500 milliseconds (ms).This delay can cause problems with real-time applications, such asvoice, and other delay sensitive applications, which may requirespoofing to avoid unnecessary retransmission.

[0020] An emerging wireless technology recently given approval by theFCC is Ultra Wideband (UWB). This is an impulse radio system which usesdigitally modulated pulses of energy instead of modulated oscillatingwaves. UWB has many potential advantages, including: lower cost, lowpower, ultra secure transmissions, and broadband speeds. However, theFCC has regulated UWB's effective operating range by limiting theoverall power with which it can operate in air.

[0021] Two companies, AirFiber and Terabeam are using unlicensedspectrum in the optical frequency range, known as free-space optics, orfiberless optics as a method to solve the “last mile” problem. They areusing lasers designed to be efficient and ultra-fast, with speeds ashigh as 1,000 megabits per second. However, these systems aresusceptible to fog, which requires sophisticated auto gain features, andcloser spacing of the nodes in the network. Also, as these systems willfrequently be mounted on tall buildings that sway, this necessitates asophisticated targeting mechanism to keep the optical link operational.These systems are being limited in practice to distances of 700-1000feet, which makes the cost of the network very expensive.

[0022] Telephone Twisted Pair Broadband Solutions—With over 700 milliontelephone twisted pair phone lines worldwide, copper is a ubiquitousasset that represents a multibillion-dollar network infrastructure.Carriers have consistently searched for ways to revitalize the copperloop plant, with Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN), DigitalSubscriber Line (DSL), Inverse Multiplexing over ATM (IMA), and(Very-high-data-rate Digital Subscriber Line) VDSL as examples ofattempts to harness copper for high-speed service delivery.

[0023] However, cross talk interference is the major problem for serviceproviders using telephone twisted pair for high-speed transmission.Throughout the network, adjacent copper lines are typically bundled intoa cable binder in groups of 25 or 50. Multiple connections that share acommon frequency experience a mingling of transmission signals, whichdistort the output signal. The cross talk phenomenon causes bit errorrates (BER). Also, telephone twisted pairs have distance constraintsrelated to high frequency signal attenuation and capacitance, which hashistorically limited the potential of twisted pair copper for deliveringultra high-speed services.

[0024] Digital Subscriber Line technology is rapidly evolving to try andovercome these limitations. Symmetricom is one company trying to enablebroadband with their GoWide product. This is a new generation IntegratedAccess Device (IAD) that combines one to eight individual copper phonelines to create a single circuit with data rates up to 15 Mbps ofdedicated bandwidth. GoWide 9.2 Mbps combines symmetric DSL transport,known as G.shdsl, with Inverse Multiplexing over ATM (IMA) to deliverend-to-end bandwidth of 9.2 Mbps via a 10Base-T Ethernet TCP/IP port.G.shdsl is the new generation of DSL approved by the ITU (aninternational standards body). G.shdsl has very low noisecharacteristics and a very low probability of interfering with otherservices in adjacent copper pairs. Unlike proprietary SDSL, G.shdsl isalready supported by major DSLAM, chipset, and other infrastructurevendors, meaning the DSLAMs already in place for ADSL residentialservices represent a ready-made infrastructure for deliveringG.shdsl-based business services with simple line card upgrades. AlthoughSymmetricom's solutions are a quantum leap in dedicated bandwidth of upto 15 Mbps, this is not enough to deliver a single uncompressed HDTVchannel over long loop distances on the public switched telephonenetwork (PSTN).

[0025] In addition, DSL technology must take into account spectrummanagement techniques to stay within prescribed levels of Power SpectralDensity (PSD) for Far End Cross Talk (FEXT) and Near End Cross Talk(NEXT) in order to make the maximum bandwidth available in anyparticular binder group. ANSI standard T1.417 entitled “SpectrumManagement For Loop Transmission Systems” provides spectrum managementrequirements and recommendations for the administration of services andtechnologies that use metallic subscriber loop cables. The followinginclude requirements and recommendations for DSL line spectrummanagement classes and specified loop technologies:

[0026] power spectral density (PSD)

[0027] total average power

[0028] transverse balance

[0029] longitudinal output voltage

[0030] deployment guidelines

[0031] Spectral management, particularly Dynamic Spectral Management(DSM), adds another layer of complexity to DSL and other telephone looptechnologies.

[0032] Cable TV Broadband Solutions—Some of the 11,000 cable television(CATV) systems in the United States, which are shared user networks, aredelivering broadband access over their CATV network infrastructure.However, due to CATV networks technology and standards constraints, CATVnetworks are rapidly running out of available bandwidth to service theircustomers. As a result, several companies are developing newtechnologies to facilitate the allocation of additional bandwidth onthese networks.

[0033] One such company, Chinook Communication, provides a technologythat takes advantage of the inefficient nature of a video signal, andmixes video, data, and voice signals within the spaces of a singlemegahertz video channel. This is an improvement over other CATVtechnologies, which simply adds data on top of the video stream, or usescompression methods to funnel data alongside the video stream in thelast mile. However, the amount of cumulative bandwidth Chinook cansqueeze out of a typical cable plant is only 500 Mbps. AlthoughChinook's technology is an improvement in bandwidth, it is not asignificant enough for a typical shared user environment provided by aCATV network, which may have as many as 750 to 1000 users on a node.

[0034] Narad Networks also provides a broadband solution for existingHybrid Fiber-Coax networks (HFC) by implementing a switched Ethernettechnology to deliver various voice, data, and media services overInternet Protocol (IP). This solution requires a CATV operator toreplace some or all of their existing cable network hardware with NaradNetwork's Optical Network Distribution Switch, Network DistributionSwitch, Subscriber Access Switch, and Broadband Interface Unit. Byreplacing this network hardware, Narad is able to exploit spectrum inthe 860 MHz to 2.5 GHz range. However, the Narad solution is costlybecause it requires a large capital investment and only provides 1 Gbpsof additional shared network bandwidth.

[0035] Rainmaker Technologies also provides a broadband solution forexisting CATV networks using their patented Wavelet technology. Thistype of technology is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,532,256 entitledMETHOD AND APPARATUS FOR SIGNAL TRANSMISSION AND RECEPTION. Rainmaker'stechnology uses “wavelets” which are orthogonal transforms that allowfor the precise control of both the frequency and time of the modulationand modulation symbols. In a full implementation, the benefit of thistechnology is an approximate 10× increase in available bandwidth to anindividual subscriber on a CATV network.

[0036] Power Line Broadband Solutions—Another emerging guided linetechnology is broadband data delivery over electric power distributionlines. Digital PowerLine, developed by Northern Telecom and UnitedUtilities, is capable of transmitting data at a rate of 1 Mbps overexisting electric power distribution infrastructure. Through“conditioning” of the existing electricity infrastructure, electricalutilities can transmit regular low frequency signals at 50 to 60 Hz andmuch higher frequency signals above 1 MHz without affecting eithersignal. The lower frequency signals carry power, while the higherfrequency signals can transmit data.

[0037] Digital PowerLine uses a High Frequency Conditioned Power Network(HFCPN) technology to transmit data and electrical signals. A HFCPN usesa series of Conditioning Units (CU) to filter those separate signals.The CU sends electricity to the outlets in the home and data signals toa communication module or “service unit”, which provides multiplechannels for data, voice, etc. Base station servers at local electricitysubstations connect to the Internet via fiber or broadband transports.The network topology of a HFCPN-based network is similar to that foundin a traditional Local Area Network (LAN).

[0038] While this demonstrates a novel use of electrical power lines fordata transport, this technology in its current state is barelycompetitive with existing DSL services operating at 1 Mbps, and again,far below TechNet's recommendation to the government for 100 Mbpsconnectivity to the home, or small business, by the year 2010.

[0039] Media Fusion, LLC is also using power lines as means to deliveryvideo, data, and voice transmission. This company's patent pendingtechnology, Advanced Sub-Carrier Modulation (ASCM), uses existingelectric grid infrastructure and the invisible magnetic field created byactive power lines to transmit data at a high rate, and delivers it toany standard electric outlet. For more information, refer to U.S. Pat.No. 5,982,276 entitled MAGNETIC FIELD BASED POWER TRANSMISSION LINECOMMUNICATION METHOD AND SYSTEM. However, the potential benefits of thistechnology are unproven in the field.

[0040] Data Bus—In addition to global telecommunication networks, thereare various local telecommunication networks employing the use of a databuses for use in factories, buildings, cars, trucks, ships, aircraft,buses, etc. A data bus is defined as one or more transmission mediumsthat serve as a common connection to transfer data between groups ofrelated devices. Data buses incorporate many different architectures andstandards and their use as a transmission medium is limited by theircomplexity and limited data rate.

[0041] A consortium of leading automotive companies is shortening thedesign cycle for data buses by defining the industry's first set ofinterface standards for automotive information, communications andentertainment systems. The Automotive Multimedia Interface Collaboration(AMIC) and the Telematics Suppliers Consortium is creating a set ofopen-standard hardware interfaces and programming interfaces forapplication software. The intelligent transportation systems' data bus(ITSDB) will ideally provide a universal backplane for swappingelectronics equipment in new-generation automotive systems.

[0042] Although auto manufacturers are using multiplex buses tointerconnect sensors and devices, there remain a number of problems. Fora variety of reasons, auto companies have hesitated to adopt a singlemultiplex bus standard. As a result, electronic-device manufacturersmust design and build multiple versions of their products to attach tothese various buses, which increase the manufacturing costs that aretypically passed along to the consumer. Furthermore, devices connectedto the auto's multiplex bus are required to be qualified through thestandard automobile design process. This constraint does not allow forfuture “unplanned” or ad-hoc electronics and features to be added by themanufacturer, the dealer or the customer.

[0043] Dual bus architecture is currently being developed that allows anITSDB to be connected to the auto's multiplex bus through a gateway.This will enable electronic-device manufacturers to build a single,automotive version of their product that plugs into any auto thatemploys dual bus architecture. The gateway, under the control of theauto company, would act as a firewall, allowing only authorized messagetraffic to pass between the auto's multiplex bus and the ITSDB'sdevices, ensuring safe operation of all vehicle systems.

[0044] In addition to traditional data bus uses on an auto, byimplementing ITSDB and dual bus on an auto, new services andapplications can be enabled such as: wireless Internet access, remotevehicle diagnostics, security/authentication codes for e-commerce orread diagnostic information from vehicle computers, sensors or air bags.

[0045] A higher-speed bus is being designed to handle multimediaapplications in the vehicle, tentatively called IDB-Multimedia (IDBM).This bus will transport digitalized audio and video, with a mechanismfor guaranteed message delivery when required by the application.

[0046] Unshielded twisted pair is the preferred medium for theautomotive data bus because of its cost effectiveness and reducedcomplexity. However, this type of medium is challenging within anenvironment that generates large amounts of signal noise, EMF, and otherforms of electrical interference.

[0047] A widely used data bus is MIL-STD-1553, which is the UnitedStates military standard that defines the electrical, mechanical andtiming specifications for a dual-redundant communication 1 Mbps data busnetwork that interconnects up to 31 cooperating digital units in asystem. This communication network, also referred to as a data bus, istypically used in avionics systems, but is also used in submarines,tanks and missiles. It is highly reliable because of its extremely lowerror rate (one word fault per 10 million words), and because of itsdual-redundant architecture.

[0048] Military aircraft, such as the F-16 Fighting Falcon, C-130Hercules Transport, B-1 Bomber, and the AH-64 Apache attack helicopter,utilize products built to the MIL-STD-1553 standard. A MIL-STD-1553 databus allows complex electronic subsystems to interact with each other andthe on-board flight computer. This data bus is the life line of theaircraft.

[0049] Missiles and Smart Bombs, such as ASRAAM (Advanced Short RangeAir to Air Missile), AIM-9X, and WCMD (Wind Corrected MunitionsDispenser), have become more sophisticated and resultantly more preciseand lethal with the advancement of microelectronics. These weaponsystems also benefit from the use of the MWL-STD-1553 data bus system.Just as aircraft use the data bus to enable the interaction between itssub-systems, missiles and smart bombs also use the MIL-STD-1553 data busto download information from the aircraft just prior to launch and tocoordinate information flow during the flight of the weapon.

[0050] Ground vehicles such as the M1A2 Tank, Bradley troop transport,and the Crusader self propelled howitzer have also evolved into highlytechnical, highly sophisticated mechanisms and use MIL-STD-1553 databuses for data links between their electrical subsystems.

[0051] The MIL-STD-1553 data bus is used in satellites, space shuttlepayloads, and on the International Space Station. Manufacturers haveapplied the standard to manufacturing production lines and commercialsystems including subways, such as the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART).MIL-STD-1553B has also been accepted and implemented by NATO and manyforeign governments. The UK has issued Def Stan 00-18 (Part 2) and NATOhas published STANAG 3838 AVS, both of which are versions ofMIL-STD-1553B. However, similarly to the MIL-STD-1533 standard, theseadditional military standards do not provide high-speed data transportrates.

[0052] Another series of buses have been developed for SupervisoryControl and Data Acquisition (SCADA). This is a software packagepositioned on top of hardware to which it is interfaced, in general viaProgrammable Logic Controllers (PLCs), or other commercial hardwaremodules to gather real time information for process control ofequipment. SCADA systems are used in industrial processes such as steelmaking, power generation and distribution, chemical, etc. The sensorsused in a SCADA bus generally transmit information over a few thousandto tens of thousands input/output (I/O) channels.

[0053] Buses also provide a method for data servers to communicate withprocess controllers in the field. The Controller Area Network (CAN)standard developed by Bosch and Intel in 1990 is a bus standard thatprovides for the network of independent controllers.

[0054] CAN bus can use multiple baud rates up to 1 Mbps. The most commonbaud rates are 125 kbps and 250 kbps. The CAN bus communication enablesbus loads of up to 100% (data being transmitted all the time and allnodes can transmit), allowing full usage of the nominal bit rate.

[0055] CAN bus is also a synchronous network, where all receivingmodules synchronize to the data coming from a transmitting module. Oneof the problems with the CAN bus is the electrical characteristics ofthe CAN bus cable which restricts the cable length according to theselected bit rate. As an example, the maximum bus length with a bit rateof 10 kbps is 1 km, and the shortest with 1 Mbps is 40 meters. Instandard industrial environments, the CAN bus uses standard cablingwithout shielding, or twisted-pair wiring.

[0056] The problems related to designing and deploying high speed “lastmile” access networks, high speed LANs, and high speed data buses can besummarized by high costs, as with bringing fiber to the building, orco-habitation issues associated with DSL and other loop technologies,and the physical limitations of sine oriented technologies to achievehigh data rates over long distances on guided and non-guided mediums.

[0057] Therefore, what is needed is a cost-effective solution thatprovides very high bandwidth for buses, LANs, and “last mile” accessnetworks, which overcomes these problems, and other limitations ofcurrent technology.

[0058] Features of the Invention

[0059] A general feature of the present invention is the provision of asystem, method and apparatus for increasing the bandwidth of guided linemediums, which overcomes the problems found in the prior art.

[0060] A further feature of the present invention is the use of pulses,which are capable of being used for the transmission of data at a highrate over high attenuation and capacitance mediums.

[0061] A further feature of the present invention is the modulation ofpulses by polarity.

[0062] A further feature of the present invention is the modulation ofpulses by position in time.

[0063] A further feature of the present invention is the modulation ofpulses by amplitude.

[0064] A further feature of the present invention is the modulation ofpulses by frequency.

[0065] A further feature of the present invention is the modulation ofpulses by phase.

[0066] A further feature of the present invention is the modulation ofpulses by VP Encoding.

[0067] A further feature of the present invention is the modulation ofmultiple pulses with or without pulse compression methods.

[0068] A further feature of the present invention is the modulation ofpulses by any combination of polarity, time, amplitude, frequency, andphase.

[0069] A further feature of the present invention is the encoding ofdata or symbols in Base 2 numbers of pulses.

[0070] A further feature of the present invention is the encoding ofdata or symbols in higher than Base 2 numbers of pulses.

[0071] A further feature of the present invention is simplex signaling.

[0072] A further feature of the present invention is half-duplexsignaling.

[0073] A further feature of the present invention is full-duplexsignaling.

[0074] A further feature of the present invention is synchronoussignaling.

[0075] A further feature of the present invention is asynchronoussignaling.

[0076] A further feature of the present invention is an enhancedbroadband transmission system with a point-to-point topology.

[0077] A further feature of the present invention is an enhancedbroadband transmission system using a loop topology.

[0078] A further feature of the present invention is an enhancedbroadband transmission system that is designed for a single user access.

[0079] A further feature of the present invention is an enhancedbroadband transmission system that is designed for multiple user access.

[0080] A further feature of the present invention is its deployment over“last mile” access network topologies.

[0081] A further feature of the present invention is a “last mile”access network configured as a telephone loop plant.

[0082] A further feature of the present invention is a telephone loopconfigured to use one wire of a telephone twisted pair for forward andthe other for reverse.

[0083] A further feature of the present invention is a telephone loopconfigured to use both wires of a telephone twisted pair for multiplexedforward and reverse transmissions.

[0084] A further feature of the present invention is a “last mile”access network configured as a Cable TV network.

[0085] A further feature of the present invention is a “last mile”access network configured as a power distribution network.

[0086] A further feature of the present invention is its deployment overlocal area network (LANs) topologies.

[0087] A further feature of the present invention is its deployment overdata bus topologies.

[0088] A further feature of the present invention is its deploymentusing any combination of “last mile” access network, LAN, and data bustopologies.

[0089] A further feature of the present invention is connection to a“last mile” access network, or LAN, or data bus using a singletransmission medium.

[0090] A further feature of the present invention is connection to a“last mile” access network, or LAN, or data bus using a plurality oftransmission mediums of a single type.

[0091] A further feature of the present invention is connection to a“last mile” access network, or LAN, or data bus using a plurality oftransmission mediums of a plurality of types.

[0092] A further feature of the present invention is the use oftelephone twisted pair as a transmission medium.

[0093] A further feature of the present invention is the use of coaxialcable as a transmission medium.

[0094] A further feature of the present invention is the use of powerlines as a transmission medium.

[0095] A further feature of the present invention is the use of shieldedpair wire as a transmission medium.

[0096] A further feature of the present invention is the use of metallicvehicle bodies and frames as a transmission medium.

[0097] A further feature of the present invention is the use ofstructural steel as a transmission medium.

[0098] A further feature of the present invention is the use of railroadrail as a transmission medium.

[0099] A further feature of the present invention is the use ofreinforcing bar as a transmission medium.

[0100] A further feature of the present invention is the use of metallicwater pipe or other forms of metallic pipeline transport as atransmission medium.

[0101] A further feature of the present invention is the use of metaldesks as a transmission medium.

[0102] A further feature of the present invention is the use of computerbackplanes as a transmission medium.

[0103] A further feature of the present invention is the use of drillstem as a transmission medium.

[0104] A further feature of the present invention is the use of otherconductive medium as a transmission medium.

[0105] A further feature of the present invention is the use ofcombinations of above as a transmission medium.

[0106] A further feature of the present invention is the use of thehuman body as a broadband data bus transmission medium.

[0107] A further feature of the present invention is the use of a singlefrequency channel to transmit pulses.

[0108] A further feature of the present invention is the use of multiplefrequency channels to transmit pulses.

[0109] A further feature of the present invention is the use of timedivision multiplexing for multiple channels, multiple users and/ormultiple device access over a single frequency channel on individual ormultiple transmission mediums.

[0110] A further feature of the present invention is the use of codedivision multiplexing for multiple channels, multiple users and/ormultiple device access over a single frequency channel operating onindividual or multiple transmission mediums.

[0111] A further feature of the present invention is the use of timedivision multiplexing for multiple channels, multiple users and/ormultiple device access over multiple frequency channels operating onindividual or multiple transmission mediums.

[0112] A further feature of the present invention is the use of codedivision multiplexing for multiple channels, multiple users and/ormultiple device access over multiple frequency channels operating onindividual or multiple transmission mediums.

[0113] A further feature of the present invention is the use of anindividual or plurality of sub-carriers.

[0114] A further feature of the present invention is the use of publicand private access codes.

[0115] A further feature of the present invention is the provision ofhigh security through the low probability of intercept and detectioncharacteristics of transmissions.

[0116] A further feature of the present invention is the provision of anefficient data encapsulation protocol.

[0117] A further feature of the present invention is the provision of amultiplexer.

[0118] A further feature of the present invention is the provision of atransceiver/processor.

[0119] A further feature of the present invention is the provision ofintermediate field repeaters.

[0120] A further feature of the present invention is the provision ofmultiplexers, switches, intermediate field repeaters, routers, clienttransceiver/processors, and other devices that switch data as pulses.

[0121] A further feature of the present invention is the provision for aclient device to operate as a “Home/PNA” local director.

[0122] A further feature of the present invention is the provision for amultiplexer that is configured operates as a “Home/PNA” remote director.

[0123] A further feature of the present invention is an enhancedbroadband delivery system that is designed to operate as a unifiedmessaging system.

[0124] A further feature of the present invention is an enhancedbroadband delivery system in which multiplexers serve as a concatenationpoint for a unified messaging system.

[0125] A further feature of the present invention is the use ofgeo-position as a routing mechanism.

[0126] A further feature of the present invention is the use of printedand video bar codes as a pulsed telecommunication data source.

[0127] A further feature of the present invention is the inclusion ofdata and symbol compression methods and systems within the transport.

[0128] A further feature of the present invention is the inclusion ofdata and symbol encryption and other security methods and systems withinthe transport.

[0129] A further feature of the present invention is the inclusion ofmanual and automated transmission tuning and conditioning systems andmethods.

[0130] A further feature of the present invention is the use ofpriority, service type, stream identification, destination address,intermediate address, origination address, protocol type, networkconditions (blockage, availability, route costs, quality of service,etc.), security rules and other standard network routing and switchingmetrics to route and switch data.

[0131] One or more of these and/or other objects, features, oradvantages of the present invention will become apparent from thespecification and claims that follow.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

[0132] The present invention is a system, method and apparatus forincreasing the bandwidth of guided line networks using pulsetransmissions. The pulses of the present invention are short, low dutycycle pulses based on a Gaussian waveform and its various derivatives,or combinations of more than one of such pulses. These pulses enable ahigh data rate over increased distances on metallic or otherelectrically conductive mediums, including, but not limited to fast risetime, ultra-wide frequency spread, unique time domain and frequencydomain signatures, etc. The pulses of the present invention exhibit aunique time domain signature and wideband frequency domain signature.

[0133] The present invention includes the use of pulses to transmit dataover electrically conductive guided lines, such as, but not limited to,coaxial cable, telephone twisted pair, Category 5 cable, power lines,other conductive mediums, such as but not limited to, metallic car andtruck bodies, ship and submarine hulls, decks and bulkheads, aircraftfuselages, structural steel, missile bodies, tank bodies, water pipes,etc., and non-metallic mediums, such as but not limited to, the humanbody, etc., or any combinations of the above.

[0134] According to one aspect of the invention, a method is providedfor operating in a public switched telephone network (PSTN). Pulses aretransmitted and received near, or in the noise range of the PSTNnetwork, which may also be providing other services such as voice,video, and data, by means other than the pulses of the presentinvention. In addition, a plurality of applications and components areprovided that are used for the support, operation, management anddelivery of services and products.

[0135] According to another aspect of the present invention, a method isprovided for operating in a Cable Television (CATV) network. Within thisembodiment, pulses are transmitted and received near, or in the noiserange of the CATV network, which may also be providing other servicessuch as voice, video, and data by means other than the pulses of thepresent invention.

[0136] According to another aspect of the present invention, a method isprovided for operating with a LAN, which transmits and receives pulsesoperating near, or in the noise range of the LAN network, which may berunning voice, video, and data traffic by means other than the pulses ofthe present invention.

[0137] According to another aspect of the present invention, a method isprovided for use with a data bus, which transmits and receives pulsesoperating near, or in the noise range of the data bus, which may berunning voice, video, and data traffic by means other than the pulses ofthe present invention.

[0138] In addition, various enhancements to each aspect of the inventionare described, including, but not limited to unified messaging,geo-based routing, pulse switching, etc.

[0139] Also, a general description of development work performed by theinventors will be described.

[0140] Reference to the remaining portions of the specification,including the drawings and claims, will realize other features andadvantages of the present invention. Further features and advantages ofthe present invention, as well as the structure and operation of variousembodiments of the present invention, are described in detail below withrespect to the accompanying drawings. In the drawings, like referencenumbers indicate identical or functionally similar elements.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0141]FIG. 1A is a graph of a Gaussian mono pulse in the time domain.

[0142]FIG. 1B is a graph of a Gaussian mono pulse in the frequencydomain.

[0143]FIG. 1C a graph of a Gaussian pulse in the time domain.

[0144]FIG. 1D is a graph of a Gaussian pulse in the frequency domain.

[0145]FIG. 1E a graph of a Gaussian doublet pulse in the time domain.

[0146]FIG. 1F is a graph of a Gaussian doublet pulse in the frequencydomain.

[0147]FIG. 2A is a block diagram of a test environment configured withtelephone twisted pair.

[0148]FIG. 2B is a block diagram of a test environment configured withcoaxial cable.

[0149]FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a PSTN network topology configured inaccordance with the preferred embodiment of the present invention.

[0150]FIG. 4 is an illustration of a PSTN network topology withintermediate field electronics configured in accordance with analternate embodiment of the present invention.

[0151]FIG. 5 is an illustration of a CATV network topology configured inaccordance with an alternate embodiment of the present invention.

[0152]FIG. 6 is a block diagram of a data bus network topologyconfigured in accordance with an alternate embodiment of the presentinvention.

[0153]FIG. 7 is a flow chart that illustrates the LDL protocol's huntand synchronization method.

[0154]FIG. 8 is an illustration of an Ethernet Network PDU encapsulatedin an LDL packet.

[0155]FIG. 9 is an illustration of LDL packets being transported over anetwork according to one embodiment of the present invention.

[0156]FIG. 10 is a flow chart illustrating Ethernet Network PDUs todevice switching according to one embodiment of the present invention.

[0157]FIG. 11 is an illustration of a MPEG-2 TS PDU encapsulated in anLDL packet.

[0158]FIG. 12 is a flow chart illustrating of a system configured todeliver video feeds via streams to an end user according to oneembodiment of the present invention.

[0159]FIG. 13 is an illustration of a Central Office includinghigh-level system requirements.

[0160]FIG. 14 is an illustration illustrating various components thatmay be configured in an LDL Management System.

[0161]FIG. 15 is a block diagram of a transmitter according to oneembodiment of the present invention.

[0162]FIG. 16 is a block diagram of a receiver according to oneembodiment of the present invention.

[0163]FIG. 17 is a block diagram of a multiplexer according to oneembodiment of the present invention.

[0164]FIG. 18 is a block diagram of a codec according to one embodimentof the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PRESENT INVENTION

[0165] The present invention is a departure from existing impulse radiotechniques used for wireless transmission of data. In order to introducethe reader to the present invention, the following technology overviewis provided as a precursor to the specific embodiments of the presentinvention. The intention of this overview is to assist the reader withthe understanding of the present invention, and should not be used tolimit the scope of the present invention.

[0166] One aspect of the present invention refers to a radio frequencysystem designed for use in high attenuation and capacitance environmentswhich are commonly found on metallic guided-line conductors, such as butnot limited to, telephone twisted pair, coaxial cable, Category 5 cable,power lines, other conductive mediums, such as but not limited to,metallic car and truck bodies, ship and submarine hulls, decks andbulkheads, aircraft fuselages, structural steel, missile bodies, tankbodies, water pipes, etc. The term “electrically conductive guidedmedia” is used to include the above mentioned metallic guided-mediaconductors while excluding transmissions over the air or opticaltransmissions either over the air via laser or view optical fiber.

[0167] The pulses of the present invention are short, low duty cyclepulses. The duration and duty cycle of the pulses vary with theparticular medium being used. For a guided media such as telephonetwisted pair the practical range of duration of the center channelfrequency of the pulses is between 300 KHz and 150 MHz, which equate topulse durations of 2650 nanoseconds to 6.67 nanoseconds respectively.The upper center channel frequency on telephone twisted pair is limitedby the phenomenon of radiation which begins to occur around 100 MHz. Theoverall duty cycle per unit of time is variable, and is dependant on theproduct of the pulse repetition frequency times a given pulse duration.The minimum practical pulse repetition frequency is dependant on theacceptable jitter for a given window of time. The length of thetelephone twisted pair loop also plays a factor in which center channelfrequency is used to achieve the maximum data rate at any particulartransmission distance. The longer the loop, the lower the acceptablepulse center channel frequency.

[0168] For a guided media such as a coaxial cable the practical range ofduration of the center channel frequency of the pulses is between 300KHz and up to 2 GHz, which equate to pulse durations of 2650 nanosecondsto 0.50025 nanoseconds. One skilled in the art will recognize that theappropriate center channel frequency is dependant on the gauge, ormixture of gauges, of the guided medium, the proximity to sources ofinterference, the quality of the insulation, grounding, whether or notthe cable is shielded, and other factors such may exist in a particularapplication or environment.

[0169] These pulses are based on the Gaussian waveform, and variousderivatives including, but not limited to, a first derivative Gaussianmono-pulse, a second derivative Gaussian doublet, etc., or combinationsof one or more of these pulses. A Gaussian waveform, is of course,significantly and mathematically different from a sine-based waveform,sawtooth waveform, triangular waveform, square waveform, gated sinewaveform, and variants of those waveforms modulated by frequency,amplitude and phase. The Gaussian waveform of the present invention iscritical to providing the benefits of the present invention. Thesepulses can also be formed by one or more waveforms that produce desiredcharacteristics including, but not limited to fast rise time, ultra-widefrequency spread, unique time domain and frequency domain signatures,etc. The pulses exhibit a unique time domain signature and widebandfrequency domain signature. The present invention's time domainsignature is a result of the time shift keying of periodic pulses, whichhave well-defined zero crossing and peaks. The present invention'spulses are recovered in the time domain by searching for the location ofa specific amount of energy in a sample window. The sent and receivedpulses are a time reference against which other pulses are measured. Ofcourse, since the present invention relates to Gaussian waveforms, timedomain signatures based on sine-based waveform, sawtooth waveform,triangular waveform, square waveform, gated sine waveform, and variantsof those waveforms modulated by frequency, amplitude and phase areexcluded from consideration, as well as any other time domain signaturecaused by continuous phase carriers as opposed to the Gaussianwaveform-based pulses of the present invention.

[0170] The frequency domain signature is ultra-wide band in naturebecause fast rise time pulses are used. The pulses are thereforetransmitted over a huge spread of frequency, and narrow-band, periodicsignals are therefore excluded from consideration, including frequencydomain signatures of sine-based waveforms, sawtooth waveforms,triangular waveforms, square waveforms, gated sine waveforms, andvariants of those waveforms.

[0171] The pulse characteristics enable increased distance and datathroughput performance of the system over existing technologies.Particular attention must be paid to the radiation of the pulse energyin unshielded metallic environments, such as telephone twisted pairs.For example, radiation occurs at approximately 100 Mhz on a telephonetwisted pair, which means relatively wide pulses, compared to those usedover air, or a coaxial cable, must be designed for use in this highattenuation, high capacitance medium.

[0172] The advantage of the pulses of the present invention are theirunique time domain signature. This signature enables a receiving deviceto determine the location of a pulse through a process calledcorrelation. Correlation indicates a coincidence of energy when areplica of the sent pulse is multiplied by a received pulse signal. Thiscoincidence known as the auto-correlation (a form of correlation),enables the detection of the pulse position in very specific timelocations. The correlation process is used to detect pulses at very lowsignal to noise (SNR) levels, even down into the noise floor. Thedetection of these low SNR level signals is possible due to thecoincidence of energy versus the signal with respect to noise.

[0173] There are two advantages of these pulses in the frequency domain:the ability to coexist with existing telecommunications technologies oncopper wires, and the ability to filter and correlate the receivedsignal.

[0174] A pulse of the present invention spreads energy to beyond 25% ofthe center frequency which causes the signal to appear as noise to mostnarrowband, wave-oriented communication systems. On a telephone loop,this characteristic limits the far-end and near-end crosstalkinterference with other technologies operating on adjacent wires. Inaddition, this characteristic allows pulse-based services of the presentinvention to co-exist on the same wire operating with other servicessuch as, but not limited to voice, DSL, etc.

[0175] The pulses illustrated in FIGS. 1a-1 f are spread in frequency inexcess of 400% of the center frequency. The pulses of the presentinvention create power spectra that are dramatically wider thantraditional spread spectrum technologies, which allow signals to betransmitted faster and further than traditional narrowband methods.

[0176] In addition, the pulses of the present invention may be shapedspectrally to control the signal bandwidth, limit out of band emissions,in-band spectral flatness, time domain peak power, or adequate on-offattenuation ratios, etc. The pulses may be produced by various methodsthat are known to one of ordinary skill in the art.

[0177] The system of the present invention can also be used to transmitone or more data bits per pulse, or may use multiple pulses to transmita single data bit. An uncoded, unmodulated pulse train containing aregularly occurring pattern of pulses will produce in the frequencydomain a set of comb lines within the power spectrum of a single pulse.These comb lines identify areas of peak power and can cause interferencewith other services transmitting on the same or nearby wire.

[0178] In order to reduce the areas of peak power noted in the comblines above, the energy can be spread more uniformly by usingpseudo-random noise (PN) codes to dither each pulse in a pulse trainrelative to each pulse's nominal position. A PN code is a set of timepositions that define the positioning for each pulse in a sequence ofpulses.

[0179] The PN code can also be used to provide a method of establishingindependent communication channels for multiple users, or devicesoperating over a single metallic medium. Multiple users, or devices,operating random individual clocks and different PN codes can bedesigned to have low cross correlation. Therefore, a pulse train usingone PN code will statistically seldom collide with pulses using anotherPN code.

[0180] In addition to PN codes, there are other methods ofchannelization on the same metallic medium, such as, but not limited totime division multiplexing, frequency division multiplexing, etc.

[0181] Any characteristics, or combinations of characteristics, of pulsewaveforms can be modulated to convey information. These include, but arenot limited to, amplitude modulation, phase modulation, frequencymodulation, time shift modulation, polarity (flip) modulation, M-ary,and those described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/812,545, toMelick, et al, entitled SYSTEM AND METHOD OF USING VARIABLE PULSES FORSYMBOLOGY. Modulation may be in either analog or digital forms.

[0182] One simple form of modulation is binary phase modulation whichmay be used to transmit binary information. Binary phase modulation usesa single symbol to convey a binary “1” when its pulse is transmitted ina specified phase and a binary “0” when its pulse is transmitted in aphase shifted 180 degrees. As an example, a series of binary phasemodulated pulses transmitted at a frequency of 10 MHz sends 10 millionpulses per second, yielding a symbol or data transmission rate of 10Mbps.

[0183] A number of M-ary modulation methods (where M equals number ofbits per symbol) provide for further data throughput capacity due tomodulation. A 4-ary modulation method defines unique locations of thepulse center for each symbol. One method of M-ary modulation used forwireless ultra-wideband is called pulse positioning modulation (PPM.)The normal implementation of PPM uses a nominal location to indicate theexpected arrival position or time of a pulse. A PPM transmitter delaysor advances the pulse by a constant amount of time from its nominalposition in order to modulate information. A PPM receiver simplyevaluates whether its pulse arrived “early” or “late” in relation to itsexpected arrival time or position. For example, a series of PPM pulsescan be transmitted at a rate of one per second. Because the receiver ofPPM pulses expects pulses to arrive at a rate of one per second, a valuecan be assigned to the arriving pulse depending if it arrived 250milliseconds (ms) early or 250 ms late.

[0184] For illustrative purposes, we will describe the pulse modulationas one of the preferred methods of modulation implemented in the presentinvention. The pulse modulation includes the use of pulse positioningcharacteristics provided in M-ary modulation schemes such as PPM.However, the pulse modulation focuses on evaluating “how late” a pulsearrives from its expected nominal position, versus PPM's method ofsimply evaluating whether a pulse has arrived early or late in relationto its expected nominal position. As an example, a 2-ary pulsemodulation scheme based upon a 10 Mhz pulse that is able to deliver twobits of information within the transmission of a single pulse. A 10 MHzpulse requires 100 nanoseconds in time to transmit. The modulation woulddefine two time locations, with the first one as the nominal time or theexpected time of the pulse. The second time location is 2.5 nanosecondslate, or after the nominal time. As a result, the total time required totransmit a single pulse is 102.5 ns. This yields a data throughput rateof approximately 9.75 Mbps.

[0185] To implement a 3-ary modulation scheme, simply add another timelocation of 2.5 ns after the second location, which is also 5 ns afterthe nominal position.

[0186] Combining methods of modulation can also be used transmitadditional information. For example, if we continued using the 2-arypulse modulation scheme described previously, in combination with phasemodulation, we could transmit data an additional two values for a totalof four different value combinations within the same amount of time.

[0187] In phase modulation, the transmitted 2-ary modulated pulse wouldbe sent 0 or 180 degrees out of phase for an additional two more valueswithin the same 102.5 ns of time.

[0188] The following chart describes the different values: CHART 2 2-ARYPULSE MODULATION EXAMPLE 4-ary Value Phase Delay “00”  0 0 “01” 180 0“10”  0 2.5 ns “11” 180 2.5 ns

[0189] By increasing the potential value combinations, the datathroughput yield has doubled from 9.75 Mbps in our 2-ary pulse modulatedexample to 19.5 Mbps in our 4-ary modulated example. As illustrated inthe example above with 2-ary pulse modulation and phase modulation,there are other pulse modulation methods that can also be used incombination with each other that provide for a variety of performancelevels.

[0190] PPM or pulse modulation methods as illustrated above provide forseveral unique advantages over traditional transmission methods in thedemodulation process. PPM and pulse demodulation methods include the useof a correlator for the decoding and demodulation of a received PPM andpulse signal of the present invention.

[0191] The correlator method of matched filtering is implemented bycross-correlating the received pulse with a replica or model of thetransmitted pulse shape, and then filtering the result. Received pulsesthat match the model of a transmitted pulse produce positive correlationresults, while noise or interference signals do not. The decision aboutthe presence or absence of a pulse can be made using a “maximumlikelihood of detection” algorithm.

[0192] The receiver's synchronization hardware and software use aprecise clock signal that marks the beginning of a time frame for eachsequence of “n” pulses. This clock signal is derived from the correlatoroutput of a matched filter dedicated to identifying the unique pulseshape, also called the sync pulse, associated with clock signal. Thesync pulse is transmitted frequently enough, for example, one for everysequence of “n” pulses, to maintain timing synchronization. A delay-lockloop, or phase-lock loop are also methods that can be used to maintaingood system synchronization between the transmitting and receivingdevices.

[0193] The present invention's pulses are tolerant of interferencebecause of their large processing gain. For example, a direct sequencespread spectrum system with a 10 MHz channel bandwidth to a 10 KHzinformation bandwidth yields a processing gain of 1000 times theinformation bandwidth, which is equal to 30 decibels (dB).

[0194] As the pulse repetition rates increase, a receiver may beprevented from integrating received pulse samples. In these cases asub-carrier may be used to enhance interference mitigation and increasethe capability to correlate a signal.

[0195] Exemplary Embodiments

[0196] The basis of the present invention is the specific, a prioriknowledge of the transmission timing, and the existence andcharacteristics of a particular pulse. Whereas wave-orientedcommunications seek to extract the meaning of a wave, the presentinvention focuses simply on the existence of a pre-defined pulse, withina pre-defined window of time, on an electrically conducting wave guidesuch as a metallic medium. The key components of the technology are thepulses, the modulation of the pulses in time and/or phase, and thecontrol of transmission power.

[0197] Recent advances in wireless communications technology haveresulted in an emerging, revolutionary ultra wide band technology (UWB)called impulse radio communications systems (hereinafter called impulseradio). Although pulses are wideband in nature and similar to ones foundin wireless UWB or impulse, the science of using them over longdistances on a high attenuation and capacitance metallic mediums such astelephone twisted pair loops, coaxial cable, and power lines issignificantly different.

[0198] To better understand the benefits of wireless impulse radio tothe present invention, the following review of impulse radio follows andwas first fully described in a series of patents, including U.S. Pat.No. 4,641,317 (issued Feb. 3, 1987), U.S. Pat. No. 4,813,057 (issuedMar. 14, 1989), U.S. Pat. No. 4,979,186 (issued Dec. 18, 1990) and U.S.Pat. No. 5,363,108 (issued Nov. 8, 1994) to Larry W. Fullerton. A secondgeneration of wireless impulse radio patents includes U.S. Pat. No.5,677,927 (issued Oct. 14, 1997), U.S. Pat. No. 5,687,169 (issued Nov.11, 1997) and U.S. Pat. No. 5,832,035 (issued Nov. 3, 1998) to Fullertonet al. The aforementioned patents are hereby included in entirety byreference as they describe a number of circuits, filters, correlators,methods, techniques, etc., that are useful in the present invention.

[0199] Exemplary uses of wireless impulse radio systems are described inU.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/332,502, entitled, “System andMethod for Intrusion Detection Using a Time Domain Radar Array,” andU.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/332,503, entitled, “Wide Area TimeDomain Radar Array,” both filed on Jun. 14, 1999, and both of which areassigned to Time Domain Corporation. Methods and techniques described inthese patents are useful in the present invention, and they areincorporated herein in their entirety by reference.

[0200] It is often desirable when building wireless impulse radioreceivers to include a sub-carrier with the baseband signal to helpreduce the effects of amplifier drift and low frequency noise. Thesub-carrier that is typically implemented alternately reversesmodulation according to a known pattern at a rate faster than the datarate. This same pattern is then used to reverse the process and restorethe original data pattern. These sub-carrier modulation methods aredescribed in further detail in U.S. Pat. No. 5,677,927 to Fullerton etal, and may be useful in the present invention, and therefore, thatpatent is herein incorporated in entirety by reference.

[0201] In order to validate a number of assumptions, the inventors haveimplemented a testing environment as shown in FIG. 2a and FIG. 2b. Theequipment in the prototype for the preferred embodiment of the presentinvention, as shown in FIG. 2a, are of both standard and proprietarynature and include: four loops of three pair, 22-gauge telephone twistedpair (TTP) underground cable 260, 260′, 260″, 260′″, arbitrary wavegenerator 200, impedance matching device 210, wire wrap frames 220,220′, differential probe 230, and computer programs for pre- and post-processing received data signals are used.

[0202] This cable 260, 260′, 260″, 260′″ is typical of the type used byphone companies. The cables 260, 260′, 260″, 260′″ range in length fromapproximately 1,740 feet long to over 5,000 feet long. The totallylength of cables 260, 260′, 260″, 260′″ available through crossconnections exceeds 14,000 feet.

[0203] The equipment in the prototype for an alternate embodiment of thepresent invention is shown in FIG. 2b and include arbitrary wavegenerator 200, 2,500 feet of RG-58 (50 ohm) coaxial cable 250, anddigital phosphor oscilloscope 240.

[0204] The TTP cables 260, 260′, 260″, 260′″ are terminated in our labfrom different entrances to ensure no cross-radiation betweentransmission and reception. The termination is a typical mainframewire-wrap used in most telephone companies. The cables 260, 260′, 260″,260′″ are grounded at the transmission end to a dedicated ground rod toensure a pure ground.

[0205] The transmission generator is a Tektronix AWG-710 Arbitrary WaveGenerator, capable of generating analog pulse trains from digitalinformation at the rate of up to 4 billion samples per second (4GSamp/sec). The generator is capable of delivering up to 2 volts peak topeak. The bandwidth of the generator is over 1.25 GHz.

[0206] The receive oscilloscope is a Tektronix 7404 Digital PhosphorOscilloscope. The scope is capable of sampling at 20 GSamp/sec. Thebandwidth of the scope is over 4 GHz. There are limitations of the scopespecifically associated with the sampling rate. For example, the scopecannot sample at 250 picoseconds (4 GSamp/Sec), the output of thegenerator. In order to sample at this rate, we currently sample at 50picoseconds (20 GSamp/second) and decimate the signal by a factor of 5.

[0207] The generation of a pulse train is accomplished using acombination of MatLab and C programs. The binary information ismodulated into pulse positions using a C routine, and the resultingpulse train is generated in MatLab. The pulse train is transferred viaFile Transfer Protocol (FTP) to the generator for transmission. As thegenerator transmits the pulse train over the transmission cables, thescope captures the pulse train transmission and saves the pulse traincapture to the MatLab machine for post processing. The synchronizationof the pulse is currently established by manual inspection and isaccomplished by placing a single pulse a few microseconds ahead of thepulse train. This synchronization pulse provides for the determinationof the beginning of the pulse train. Also, the inclusion of anadditional timing pulse in the stream of modulated pulses containing thedata further refines the synchronization of the pulse train.

[0208] The inventors have used this test scenario to generate, modulate,receive, and demodulate a wide variety of pulse shapes and derivatives,PN coding schemes, pulse center channel frequencies, etc., in order tosuccessfully transmit and receive pulses over the entire combined lengthof cable at data rates that exceed state-of-the art Digital SubscriberLine (DSL) and Cable TV (CATV) cable modem technologies by one to twoorders of magnitude.

[0209] In addition to the basic equipment shown in FIG. 2a and FIG. 2b,the inventors have built a number of proprietary boards to filter andamplify the transmitted and received signal in order to improveperformance of the arbitrary wave generator 200 and digital phosphoroscilloscope 240.

[0210] The arbitrary wave generator, digital phosphor oscilloscope,MatLab programs, and filter and amplification boards have also beenconnected to a live loop exceeding 17,000 feet at a rural localtelephone company. This environment had other technologies operating inthe same binder group including, Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line(ADSL), Elastic Ethernet, and Plain Old Telephone Service (POTS). Pulsesof the present invention were transmitted and successfully received overthis loop at a data rate nearly one order of magnitude faster than thebest DSL technology currently available.

[0211] In addition, the inventors have successfully tested over othermediums such as water pipe, metallic car bodies, etc.

[0212] The present invention may be configured to use a wide variety ofnetwork topologies. The following chart includes, but is not limited to,the following topologies which may be configured in loops, orpoint-to-point, or a combination. CHART 3 NETWORK TOPOLOGY DEFINITIONSSWITCHED ACCESS NETWORKS Telephone Single Interface/User TelephoneMultiple Interfaces/User SHARED ACCESS NETWORKS Cable TV SingleInterface/User Cable TV Multiple Interfaces/User Power Line SingleInterface/User Power Line Multiple Interfaces/User LAN SingleInterfaces/User LAN Multiple Interfaces/User BUS Single Interface/UserBUS Multiple Interfaces/User HYBRID NETWORKS Any Combination of SingleInterface/User Telephone, Cable TV, Power Line, Wireless, LAN, PAN, BUSAny Combination of Multiple Interfaces/User Telephone, Cable TV, PowerLine, Wireless, LAN, PAN, BUS

[0213] The present invention's network topologies may be configured touse a wide variety of mediums for transporting data. The following chartincludes, but is not limited to, the following mediums: CHART 4TRANSPORT MEDIUMS GUIDED MEDIUMS Telephone Twisted Pairs (TTP) CoaxialCables CAT-5 Wiring Power Lines (Long Distance Power Distribution) PowerLines (In-Building) Metallic Pipes Railroad Rails Drill Stem HighwayRebar Vehicle Frames & Bodies (Including Cars, Trucks, Tanks, Airplanes,Tanks, Cranes, Etc.) Missile & Rocket Bodies Metal Desks Desks & BenchesWith Metallic Bus Strips (Including Wooden Desks, Kitchen Counters, LabBenches, Etc.) Compute Device Backplanes Narrow Band Sine-Wave CarriersOperating Over Guided Mediums

[0214] The present invention's network topologies may be configured touse a wide variety of directions and methods for transporting data. Thefollowing chart includes, but is not limited to, the following commonmethods: CHART 5 TRANSPORT DIRECTIONS, METHODS TRANSMISSION DIRECTIONSSimplex - One direction only. Half-Duplex - Bi-directional, onedirection at a time. Full-Duplex - Bi-directional, both directions atthe same time. The up- stream and downstream directions may besymmetrical, or asymmetrical in bandwidth. METHODS FOR ACCOMMODATINGMULTIPLE USERS/DEVICES Synchronous Time Division MultiplexedAsynchronous Time Division Multiplexed Code Division MultiplexedFrequency Division Multiplexed

[0215] Specific Topologies

[0216] “Last Mile” Access Network Topologies—FIG. 3 illustrates thepreferred embodiment of the present invention is configured as a PublicSwitched Telephone Network (PSTN) topology without any intermediatefield electronics, such as a Digital Loop Carrier (DLC) 400 as shown inFIG. 4. The present invention deployed on a PSTN may operate a singleprivate multiplexed downstream and upstream of pulses, or a plurality ofprivate downstreams and upstreams of pulses.

[0217] The PSTN is a circuit switched network, which is normallyaccessed by telephones, key telephone systems, private branch exchangetrunks, and data arrangements. The circuit between the call originatorand call receiver in a PSTN is completed using network signaling in theform of dial pulses or multi-frequency tones. Even though long distancecarriers generally operate fiber optic networks, the Local ExchangeCarriers (LEC) and Competitive Local Exchange Carriers (CLEC) are theprimary “last mile” link, which is generally telephone twisted pair, tothe home, or business.

[0218] The preferred embodiment of the present invention as shown inFIG. 3 is a typical LEC PSTN network topology configured without anyintermediate field electronics, and with the addition of a multiplexer1700, which may also be referred to as a UWB unit or telecommunicationsinterface and is shown in FIG. 17. The tandem office 305 is the tolladministration office that connects the LEC, via transmission medium300, which may be fiber optic cable, a wireless system, etc., to otherLECs through long distance Interchange Carriers (IXC), Internet ServiceProviders (ISP), Application Service Providers (ASP), to peering points,such as, but not limited to another computer, a server farm, and datareverberating over a network. The tandem office 305 is connected to oneor more Central Offices (CO) 310 via the underground plant 315. Theunderground plant 315 usually consists of transport medium, such as, butnot limited to, fiber optic lines for the transport of multiplexed,digital data streams.

[0219] CO 310 is the switching center for the LEC. The CO 310 is theco-location point for any DSL equipment the LEC is operating, such as,but not limited to a Digital Subscriber Lines Access Multiplexer(DSLAM), etc. The DSLAM 311 generates, modulates, transmits, andreceives DSL signals to and from the Main Distribution Frame (MDF) 314.The CO 310 also houses the switching gear 313 for completing circuitsbetween two, or more customers, and the MDF 314, which is the maintermination block for all of a LEC's telephone twisted pairs. The CO310, will also be the co-location point for the present invention'smultiplexer 1700. This equipment generates, modulates, transmits, andreceives signals to and from the MDF 314.

[0220] MDF 314 is connected to the end-user via feeder distributionnetwork 335, which are telephone twisted pairs grouped together inbinders of 25 or 50, Junctor Wire Interface Cabinets (JWIC) 340, andpedestal(s) 350. JWIC 340 is a mechanical cross-connect cabinet thatconnects the telephone twisted pairs coming from MDF 314 to the variouspedestals 350, via feeder distribution network 335 in a LEC's network.

[0221] Pedestal 350 is a junction box where customer drops 355 areterminated in a neighborhood. Customer drops 355 are telephone twistedpairs from the pedestal 350 to the interface device 361, which can belocated inside, or outside a customer's building 360. Interface device361 can be equipment, such as, but not limited to, a codec 1800 shown inFIG. 18.

[0222] The LEC described in FIG. 3 will continue to operate normalvoice, media, and data services over their network. Local voice trafficwill continue to be switched, and packets of media and data will behandled with existing, or future systems and protocols such as, but notlimited to, Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN), DSL,Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM), analog codec, Transmission ControlProtocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP), etc. The present invention providesa protocol and system agnostic carrier that can be enabled to carry anyform of digital voice, media, and data transmissions, such as, but notlimited to, TCP/IP packets, ATM frames, etc. A specific protocol isbeing developed for the commercial deployment of this system known asthe Lightwaves Data Link protocol (LDL), and is described in detaillater in this document. The multiplexer 1700 in the CO 310 will generatepulse transmissions at, or below the noise level, of the LEC's network.

[0223] Once inside building 360, high data rate Home PNA-type systemscan be built using pulses transmitted over telephone twisted pairs orelectrical wiring.

[0224] In order to achieve longer transmission distances at lower datarates from the CO 310, over-sampling techniques such as, CyclicRedundancy Code (CRC), and Forward Error Correction (FEC), etc., can beused to insure an acceptable Bit Error Rate (BER).

[0225]FIG. 4 illustrates an alternate embodiment of the presentinvention is configured as a Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN)topology which includes intermediate field electronics in the form aDigital Loop Carrier (DLC) cabinet 400. This network topology of thepresent invention may operate a single private multiplexed downstreamand upstream of pulses, or a plurality of private downstreams andupstreams of pulses. The pulses are high number base encoded, and arenear, or in the noise range of the transmission on a network, which maybe running voice, video, and data traffic by means other than the pulsesof the present invention.

[0226] The PSTN is a circuit switched network, which is normallyaccessed by telephones, key telephone systems, private branch exchangetrunks, and data arrangements. The circuit between the call originatorand call receiver in a PSTN is completed using network signaling in theform of dial pulses or multi-frequency tones. Even though long distancecarriers generally operate fiber optic networks, the Local ExchangeCarriers (LEC) and Competitive Local Exchange Carriers (CLEC) are theprimary “last mile” link, which is generally telephone twisted pair, tothe home, or business.

[0227] This alternate embodiment of the present invention is a typicalLEC, as shown in FIG. 4, with the addition of an multiplexer 1700. Thetandem office 305 is the toll administration office that connects theLEC, via transmission medium 300, which may be fiber optic cable, awireless system, etc., to other LECs through long distance InterchangeCarriers (IXC), Internet Service Providers (ISP), Application ServiceProviders (ASP), to peering points, such as, but not limited to anothercomputer, a server farm, and data reverberating over a network. Thetandem office 305 is connected to one or more Central Offices (CO) 310via the underground plant 315. The underground plant 315 usuallyconsists of transport medium, such as, but not limited to, fiber opticlines for the transport of multiplexed, digital data streams.

[0228] CO 310 is the switching center for the LEC. The CO 310 is aco-location point for any DSL equipment the LEC is operating, such as,but not limited to a Digital Subscriber Lines Access Multiplexer(DSLAM), etc. The DSLAM 311 generates, modulates, transmits, andreceives DSL signals to and from the Main Distribution Frame (MDF) 314.CO 310 also houses the switching gear 313 for completing circuitsbetween two, or more customers, and the MDF 314, which is the maintermination block for all of a LEC's telephone twisted pairs. Thisequipment generates, modulates, transmits, and receives signals to andfrom the MDF 314.

[0229] The MDF 314 sends and receives multiplexed, digital data streamsto and from the DLC 400 via the underground plant 315. The Digital LoopCarrier (DLC) 400 are connected to an end-user via feeder distributionnetwork 335, which are telephone twisted pairs grouped together inbinders of 25 or 50, Junctor Wire Interface Cabinets (JWIC) 340, andpedestal(s) 350. DLC 400 is a piece of intermediate field electronicsused to increase the physical reach of a CO. DLC 400 is an analog todigital converter, and multiplexer for traffic coming from a customer'sbuilding 360 back to the CO 310. In this embodiment of the presentinvention, the DLC 400, serves as the co-location point for the presentinvention's multiplexer 1700. JWIC 340 is a mechanical cross-connectcabinet that connects the telephone twisted pairs coming from DLC 400 tothe various pedestals 350, via feeder distribution network 335 in aLEC's network.

[0230] Pedestal 350 is a junction box where customer drops 355 areterminated in a neighborhood. Customer drops 355 are telephone twistedpairs from the pedestal 350 to the interface device 361, which can belocated inside, or outside a customer's building 360. Interface device361 can be equipment, such as, but not limited to, a codec 1800 shown inFIG. 18.

[0231] The LEC described in FIG. 4 will continue to operate normalvoice, media, and data services over their network. Local voice trafficwill continue to be switched, and packets of media and data will behandled with existing, or future systems and protocols such as, but notlimited to, Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN), DSL,Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM), analog codec, Transmission ControlProtocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP), etc. Protocol and system agnosticcarrier of the present invention can be enabled to carry any form ofdigital voice, media, and data transmissions, such as, but not limitedto, TCP/IP packets, ATM frames, etc. A specific protocol is beingdeveloped for the commercial deployment of this system known as theLightwaves Data Link protocol (LDL), and is described in detail later inthis document. The multiplexer 1700 in the DLC 400 will generatetransmissions at, or below the noise level, of the LEC's network.

[0232] Once inside building 360, high data rate Home PNA-type systemscan be built using pulses transmitted over telephone twisted pairs orelectrical wiring.

[0233] In order to achieve longer transmission distances as lower datarates from the DLC 400, over-sampling techniques such as, CyclicRedundancy Code (CRC), and Forward Error Correction (FEC), etc., can beused to insure an acceptable Bit Error Rate (BER).

[0234] The following is an example of retrieving an Internet web pageusing the preferred embodiment of the present invention as shown in FIG.3, or the alternate embodiment of the present invention as shown in FIG.4. A user with service over their LEC's switched network wishes to usetheir PC to access a web page from a remote server. The client device,such as, but not limited to a PC, is connected, either internally orexternally to a stand-alone codec 1800, as shown in FIG. 18, orintegrated into a device. Codec 1800 is shown in FIG. 18, and in oneembodiment can be a UWB modem.

[0235] The PC uses Internet browser software, such as, but not limitedto Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0, in order to initiate the followingsteps that would generally be required to connect to the remote serverusing a standard client-server architecture, using a codec 1800, asshown in FIG. 18, for access to the Internet over a LEC's switchednetwork, through an Internet Service Provider (ISP) in order to retrievethe following file: http://www.dlblimited.com/aboutDLB.htm

[0236] The browser breaks the Uniform Resource Locator (URL) into 3parts:

[0237] The communication protocol to be used: Hyper Text TransferProtocol (HTTP)

[0238] The server name to be accessed: (www.dlblimited.com)

[0239] The requested file: (aboutDLB.htm)

[0240] The PC's communication software creates a data packet usingTCP/IP stack protocol

[0241] The PC's communication software encapsulates the TCP/IP datapacket in Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP), which is an establishedstandard for the assignment and management of IP addresses, asynchronous(start/stop) and bit-oriented synchronous encapsulation, networkprotocol multiplexing, link configuration, link quality testing, errordetection, and option negotiation for such capabilities as network layeraddress negotiation and data-compression negotiation.

[0242] The PC sends the TCP/IP data packet encapsulated in PPP to acodec 1800, as shown in FIG. 18, which is a full-duplex device, in orderto transmit and receive digital information over twisted telephonepairs.

[0243] The PC can be transmit TCP/IP data packets over a plurality ofmethods to the codec 1800, as shown in FIG. 18, including but notlimited to local and external buses such as Peripheral ComponentInterconnect (PCI), Advanced TCA, Industry Standard Architecture (ISA),Ethernet, Infiniband, Universal Serial Bus (USB), serial or parallel,802.11 wireless, Bluetooth, etc. The codec 1800, as shown in FIG. 18 maybe stand alone or integrated into another device.

[0244] The codec 1800, as shown in FIG. 18, converts the byteinformation contained in the data packet into time delays for pulses,modulates the pulses in a manner that is compatible with the LEC'stelephone twisted pair, and serially transmits signal pulses over theLEC's switched network as a PN coded noise-like signals.

[0245] The CO 310 or DLC 400 houses a multiplexer 1700 that converts thePN coded noise-like signals containing data resulting from typicalInternet usage back into bytes, the bytes into individual bits, thenmodulates and signals the bits onto the packet network for routing to auser's ISP. Typical Internet usage data includes, but is not limited todomain name resolutions on Domain Name Servers (DNS), transmission ofbrowser cookies, transmission of client environment information likebrowser-type and version, HTTP requests such as “get and post”operations, FTP requests, Telnet requests, Post-Office Protocol (POP3)E-mail requests, etc.

[0246] The process is reversed at the LEC's central office when requestssuch as HTTP, FTP, Telnet, POP3 are fulfilled and responded with datapacket(s) containing the requested information in a variety of formatsincluding, but not limited to files, streams, Hyper Text Markup Language(HTML), Graphics Interchange Format (GIF), Joint Photographic ExpertsGroup (JPEG), American Standard Code for Information Interchange(ASCII), Tag Image File Format (TIFF), Portable Document Format (PDF),Motion Pictures Expert Group (MPEG), MPEG 1 Audio Layer 3 (MP3), binary,etc.

[0247] The CO's 310 or DLC's 400 multiplexer 1700 converts the datapacket bytes into time delays for pulses, and serially transmits signalpulses over the LEC's switched network as pseudo-random coded noise tothe original web page requester.

[0248] The requester's codec demodulates the pulses, converts pulses tobytes and subsequently bits, to be forwarded to the PC by modulatingthem over the network or bus as described above.

[0249] The PC's browser processes the HTML tags and formats the web pagefor display on the PC's monitor. The PC browser may invoke a pluralityof “plugins” to provide additional functionality and to display dataformats other than HTML. For example, Adobe Acrobat to display PDF filesor Windows Media Player for MPEG and MP3 files and streams.

[0250] This entire process may be repeated several times in order toretrieve a single web page, or transmit other types of digital data athigh speeds, such as, but not limited to, voice, music, video, software,communicate with an Application Service Provider (ASP), videoconferencing, etc.

[0251]FIG. 5 illustrates an alternate embodiment of the presentinvention, and is a Cable Television network (CATV), which may operate asingle, or a plurality of shared multiplexed downstreams and upstreamsof pulses. The pulses are high number base encoded, and are near, or inthe noise range of the transmission on a network, which may be runningvoice, video, and data traffic by means other than the pulsetransmissions of the present invention.

[0252] Cable television networks are generally categorized by theiroverall bandwidth, which equates to the total number of channels theycan transmit. Older systems are designated as 330 MHz and 550 MHz. Newersystems are designated as 750 MHz, 860 MHz, and 1 GHz. CATV networks usecoaxial, and/or fiber optic cable to distribute video, audio, and datasignals to homes or other establishments that subscribe to the service.Systems with bi-directional capability can also transmit signals fromvarious points within the cable network to a central originating point.

[0253] CATV distribution systems typically use leased space on utilitypoles owned by a telephone or power distribution company. In areas withunderground utilities, CATV systems are normally installed either inconduits, or buried directly, depending on local building codes and soilconditions.

[0254] An alternate embodiment of the present invention is a typicalCATV all-coax network, as shown in FIG. 5, with the addition of amultiplexer 1700. The Head End Office 510 is the central originatingpoint of all signals carried throughout the CATV network that connectsthe CATV network to programming via transmission medium 400, which maybe fiber optic cable, and/or a wireless system, such as, but not limitedto satellites, and/or media servers, etc. Transmission medium 400 mayalso be used to connect to data sources for cable codec customersthrough an Internet Service Provider (ISP), Application Service Provider(ASP), to peering points, such as, but not limited to another computer,a server farm, and data reverberating.

[0255] Head End Office 510 is the multiplexing and switching center forthe CATV network. The Head End Office 510 can also be a co-locationpoint for an ISP. The Head End Office 510 houses modulators 514 toreceive input baseband signals from transmission medium 500, andgenerate a high-quality vestigial sideband TV signal for output to acombiner 512. Combiners 512 are used to combine several signals into asingle output with a high degree of isolation between inputs. The HeadEnd Office 510, will also be the co-location point for the presentinvention's multiplexer 1700. This equipment generates, modulates,transmits, and receives data signals from a customer, switched networks,such as but not limited to the PSTN, and data packet networks, such as,but not limited to the Internet. The signals from the combiners 512 arefed to an amplifier 513 that is a low noise, high gain amplifier thatalso stabilizes the level of VHF and UHF channel output signals.

[0256] The amplifier 513 sends and receives multiplexed, analog and/ordigital data streams to and from the distribution network. CATV networksare specialized systems for transmitting numerous television channels ina sealed spectrum, rather than a general-purpose communications medium,so the topology of the network is designed for maximum distributionefficiency, and is called a tree-and-branch architecture. Signals fromthe Head End Office 510 are routed over transmission medium 515, whichis coaxial cable to CATV node 520. CATV node 520 is a main distributionpoint in a CATV network to the various branches that serve smallergeographical areas. The CATV node 520 relays signals via a serialdistribution system of distribution pedestals 530, 530′, distributionamplifiers 540, to a customer's drop 545, via feeder distributionnetwork 535. The present invention is also applicable to CATV networksconfigured in a ring topology.

[0257] The customer's drop 545 is connected to a interface device 361,which can be equipment, such as, but not limited to, a CATV splitter,from which coaxial cable in building 360 may terminate directly into thetelevision receiver on 12-channel systems, or into a converter wheremore than 12 channels are provided. Most modern receivers andvideocassette recorders are “cable-ready” and include the necessaryconverters to access the additional system channels. Systems providingpay services may require a descrambler, or other form of converter, inthe subscriber's home to allow the viewer to receive these specialservices. Newer cable systems use addressable converters ordescramblers, giving the cable operator control over the channelsreceived by subscribers. This control enables services such as per-viewpay without the need for a technician to visit the home, or business, toinstall the special service. In addition, the customer drop 445 mayterminate at an interface device 361 with an integrated codec 1800, asshown in FIG. 18.

[0258] The CATV network described in FIG. 5 will continue to providetheir normal media and data services over their network. In addition,the multiplexer 1700 in the Head End Office 510 will generatetransmissions over the CATV network operating near, or in the noiselevel in order to create bandwidth.

[0259] In addition, once inside building 360, high data rate HomePNA-type systems can be built using the pulse transmissions of thepresent invention over telephone twisted pairs or electrical wiring

[0260] The following is an example of retrieving an Internet web pageusing the CATV embodiment of the present invention as shown in FIG. 5 Auser with the service of the present invention over their CATVprovider's network wishes to use their PC to access a web page from aremote server. The client device, such as, but not limited to a PC, isconnected, either internally or externally to a stand-alone codec 1800,as shown in FIG. 18, or integrated into a device.

[0261] The PC uses Internet browser software, such as, but not limitedto Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0, in order to initiate the followingsteps that would generally be required to connect to the remote serverusing a standard client-server architecture, using a codec 1800, asshown in FIG. 18, for access to the Internet over a CATV network,through an Internet Service Provider (ISP) in order to retrieve thefollowing file: http://www.dlblimited.com/aboutDLB.htm

[0262] The browser breaks the Uniform Resource Locator (URL) into 3parts:

[0263] The communication protocol to be used: Hyper Text TransferProtocol (HTTP)

[0264] The server name to be accessed: (www.dlblimited.com)

[0265] The requested file: (aboutDLB.htm)

[0266] The PC's communication software creates a data packet usingTCP/IP stack protocol

[0267] The PC's communication software encapsulates the TCP/IP datapacket in Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP), which is an establishedstandard for the assignment and management of IP addresses, asynchronous(start/stop) and bit-oriented synchronous encapsulation, networkprotocol multiplexing, link configuration, link quality testing, errordetection, and option negotiation for such capabilities as network layeraddress negotiation and data-compression negotiation.

[0268] The PC sends the TCP/IP data packet encapsulated in PPP to acodec 1800, as shown in FIG. 18, which is a full-duplex device, in orderto transmit and receive digital information over twisted telephonepairs.

[0269] The PC can be transmit TCP/IP data packets over a plurality ofmethods to the codec 1800, as shown in FIG. 18, including but notlimited to local and external buses such as Peripheral ComponentInterconnect (PCI), Advanced TCA, Industry Standard Architecture (ISA),Ethernet, Infiniband, Universal Serial Bus (USB), serial or parallel,802.11 wireless, Bluetooth, etc. The codec 1800, as shown in FIG. 18 maybe stand alone or integrated into another device.

[0270] The codec 1800, as shown in FIG. 18, converts the byteinformation contained in the data packet into time delays for pulses,modulates the pulses in a manner that is compatible with the CATVprovider's coaxial cable, and serially transmits signal pulses over theCATV provider's network as a PN coded noise-like signals.

[0271] The Head End office 510 houses a multiplexer 1700 that convertsthe PN coded noise-like signals containing data resulting from typicalInternet usage back into bytes, the bytes into individual bits, thenmodulates and signals the bits onto the packet network for routing to auser's ISP. Typical Internet usage data includes, but is not limited todomain name resolutions on Domain Name Servers (DNS), transmission ofbrowser cookies, transmission of client environment information likebrowser-type and version, HTTP requests such as “get and post”operations, FTP requests, Telnet requests, Post-Office Protocol (POP3)E-mail requests, etc.

[0272] The process is reversed at the CATV Head End office 510 whenrequests such as HTTP, FTP, Telnet, POP3 are fulfilled and respondedwith data packet(s) containing the requested information in a variety offormats including, but not limited to files, streams, Hyper Text MarkupLanguage (HTML), Graphics Interchange Format (GIF), Joint PhotographicExperts Group (JPEG), American Standard Code for Information Interchange(ASCII), Tag Image File Format (TIFF), Portable Document Format (PDF),Motion Pictures Expert Group (MPEG), MPEG 1 Audio Layer 3 (MP3), binary,etc.

[0273] The Head End office's 510 multiplexer 1700 converts the datapacket bytes into time delays for pulses, and serially transmits signalpulses over the CATV provider's network as pseudo-random coded noise tothe original web page requester.

[0274] The requester's codec demodulates the pulses, converts pulses tobytes and subsequently bits, to be forwarded to the PC by modulatingthem over the network or bus as described above.

[0275] The PC's browser processes the HTML tags and formats the web pagefor display on the PC's monitor. The PC browser may invoke a pluralityof “plugins” to provide additional functionality and to display dataformats other than HTML. For example, Adobe Acrobat to display PDF filesor Windows Media Player for MPEG and MP3 files and streams.

[0276] This entire process may be repeated several times in order toretrieve a single web page, or transmit other types of digital data athigh speeds, such as, but not limited to, voice, music, video, software,communicate with an Application Service Provider (ASP), videoconferencing, etc.

[0277]FIG. 6 illustrates an embodiment of the present invention used ashigh speed data bus for use in an automobile for example. The inventorshave tested the transmission and reception of the present invention'spulsed signals over the metallic portions of a pick-up truck.

[0278] The data bus network may operate a single, or a plurality ofshared multiplexed downstreams and upstreams of present invention'spulses. The pulses are high number base encoded, and are near, or in thenoise range of the data bus network, which may be running voice, video,and data traffic by means other than the present invention.

[0279] The data bus network as illustrated in FIG. 6 is comprised ofvarious components connected to data bus 670, which is a guided media.These components include a master data bus module 600 which controlvarious electronic control modules which are well known in the art,including, but not limited to, engine control module 610, HVAC controlmodule 611, transmission control module 612, and suspension controlmodule 613. In addition, master data bus module 600 controls varioussensors connected to the data bus network via data bus 670, including amulti-sensor module 620, and a single sensor module 630 connected to thedata bus network. Only one of each type of sensor module is shown forclarity, but in reality there can be as many as 50 sensors on a currentmodel year vehicle. Also connected to the data bus network is amulti-media controller 650 which manages various feeds including, butnot limited to a GPS feed 660, audio feed 661, game feed 662, and videofeed 663, which are distributed to a game unit 640, audio unit 641, GPSunit 642, and a video unit 643 via the data bus 670.

[0280] The master data bus module 600, engine control module 610, HVACcontrol module 611, transmission control module 612, suspension controlmodule 613, multi-sensor module 620, single sensor module 630, game unit640, audio unit 641, GPS unit 642, video unit 643, and multi-mediacontroller 650 are equipped with the present invention's transmitter andreceivers as shown in FIGS. 15 and 16.

[0281] Data bus 670 is shown as two conductors, but may be a singleconductor. Data bus 670 can be a conductor such as a power wire, ashielded or unshielded wire, etc.

[0282] Master data base module 600 and multi-media controller 650 arethe multiplexing and switching components of the data bus network.

[0283] Alternatively, the data bus network can be operated as anEthernet.

[0284] The data bus network is protocol agnostic and use any protocolincluding, but not limited to, the Intelligent Transportation SystemData Bus (ITSDB), and MIL-STD-1553 for military vehicles, aircraft,missiles, rockets etc. In addition, these protocols can be encapsulatedin the LDL protocol described in the present invention.

[0285] In an alternative embodiment of a data bus network in anautomobile, the sensors could be powered up by wireless radio frequencyenergy, similar to passive Radio Frequency Identification (RFID)technology, and connected to a data bus 670 which is the metallicportions of a vehicle, including the body, frame, engine, etc. In thisembodiment, expensive wiring for power and signaling could be reduced,or eliminated.

[0286] Although a data bus network in an automobile or other vehicle isillustrated in FIG. 6, one skilled in the art will recognize that databus networks for an application such as a SCADA (Supervisory Control andData Acquisition) application, such as, but limited to Controller AreNetwork Bus (CAN). In these embodiments the data bus 670 could be uniqueguided mediums such as, but not limited to, structural steel in abuilding, or the drill stem in a drilling rig application, etc.

[0287] Lightwaves Data Link (LDL) Protocol

[0288] The present invention is transport protocol agnostic. The systemmay be configured to use standardized or proprietary transportprotocols. Standardized network and transport protocols include, but arenot limited to, Ethernet, Asynchronous Transport Mode (ATM), SynchronousOptical Network (SONET), IP-based protocols such as File TransferProtocols (FTP), Transmission Control Protocol (TCP), Hyper-textTransport Protocol (HTTP), Internetwork Packet Exchange (IPX), MotionPicture Expert Group (MPEG), MPEG-1 Audio 3 (MP3) and System NetworkArchitecture (SNA).

[0289] Lightwaves Data Link (LDL) is a proprietary data packetarchitecture designed for use in the present invention's preferredembodiment on telephone twisted pair networks, particularly consideringthe impact of high bandwidth/user becoming available. The LDL protocolhas been designed to be easily adaptable to other embodiments of thepresent invention including, but not limited to, CATV, LAN, and DataBus. Additionally, LDL could be used with other standardized orproprietary data transport systems and methods.

[0290] LDL is based upon Lucent's Simple Data Link Protocol (SDL) andIETF's RFC 2823 titled “PPP over Simple Data Link using SONET/SDH withATM-like Framing.” LDL encapsulates protocol data units (PDUs), such asInternet Protocol (IP), Internetwork Packet Exchange (IPX), etc. fortransport using the present invention's data transmission system. LDLuses some of the same constructs provided in SDL. The LDL frames areillustrated in Charts 6 through 9 below. CHART 6 LDL IDLE FRAME LDLHeader LDL Payload Data Length Payload Length CRC 2 octets 2 octets

[0291] CHART 7 LDL LINK LAYER SCRAMBLER FRAME LDL Header LDL PrivateArea LDL Cheek LDL Payload LDL Priority, Stream Private & PayloadPayload Length CRC Type, Broadcast, Count CRC 16 Data Stream ID Length 2octets 2 octets 3 octets 1 Octet 2 octets

[0292] CHART 8 LDL OPERATION AND MEASUREMENTS MESSAGE FRAME LDL HeaderLDL Private Area LDL Check LDL Payload LDL Priority, Stream Private &Payload Payload Length CRC Type, Broadcast, Count CRC 16 Data Stream IDLength 2 octets 2 octet 3 octets 1 Octet 2 octets

[0293] CHART 9 LDL PDU TRANSPORT FRAME LDL Header LDL Private Area LDLLDL Priority, LDL Check Payload Payload Type, LDL Payload Private & DataLength Broadcast, Stream LDL Payload Payload CRC Length CRC Stream IDCount Data Area 32 2 octets 2 octet 3 octets 1 Octet <=65,535 4 octetsoctets

[0294] The LDL header contains two fields and when used togetherfunction as the frame delimiter for LDL. Every LDL frame transmittedrequires a complete LDL Header containing the LDL Payload Data Length(PDL) and the LDL Payload Length CRC fields.

[0295] The LDL Payload Data Length contains the number of octetscontained within the LDL Payload Data Area. Its value dictates the typeof LDL frame transmitted. As examples:

[0296] Idle (PDL=0): LDL Private and Payload Areas are not transmitted,thus a LDL check is also not required. Only the LDL Header istransmitted as a group of four NULL octets.

[0297] Link Layer Scramble (PDL=1): The LDL Payload area is nottransmitted. As a result, an LDL Check field of 2 octets contains thechecksum of the LDL Private Area.

[0298] Operations and Measurement (OAM) Message Frames (PDL=2 or 3): TheLDL Private area of 4 octets contains OAM data. The LDL Payload area isnot transmitted. As a result, an LDL Check field of 2 octets containsthe checksum of the LDL Private Area.

[0299] Protocol Data Unit (PDU) Transport Frame (4<PDL<=65,535): ThisLDL frame is used for encapsulating raw PDUs for transport betweenmultiple LDL devices. The LDL Private and Payload areas are transmittedand the LDL Check contains a 4 octet CRC calculated over the LDL Privateand Payload areas.

[0300] The Payload Length CRC contains the CRC-16 or CRC-32 calculationof the LDL Payload Length contained in the LDL Payload Data Length.

[0301] The LDL Private Area consists of 4 octets divided into 3 octetsdescribed in Chart 9 for the LDL frame priority, the frame type,broadcast type and stream ID. With the exception of an LDL Idle Frame,every LDL Frame requires a LDL Private area consisting of 6 octets inlength.

[0302] The LDL Payload Area contains the encapsulated PDUs to betransmitted between multiple LDL devices. When an LDL frame contains apayload, the LDL Payload Area ranges from a minimum of 4 to a maximum of65,535 octets in size.

[0303] Cycle Redundancy Check (CRC) 16 and 32 bit is an algorithm basedupon the use of polynomial arithmetic that assigns a CRC value equal tothe remainder of dividing the LDL Private and Payload Data Areas (ifused) by a divisor representing a polynomial. It can process any payloadof any size, so the length of the payload in combination with the LDLprivate area is not an issue. LDL idle frames do not contain a CRC andthe size of the CRC field is dependent on the type of the LDL frameused.

[0304] An LDL session begins with the hunting and synchronizationprocess. FIG. 7 is a flow chart of the process.

[0305] LDL octets are received into an octet buffer or other memory andstorage caching mechanism that is subsequently processed by the LDLdecoder. The hunt begins at the beginning of the octet buffer andcompares CRC-16 value of the current octet and value of the next octet.If there is no match, then the current octet is discarded and theprocess moves to the next octet in the buffer.

[0306] If there is a match between these two values, then it is knownwith a high degree of probability that a valid LDL length octet has beenfound. Using the assumption this is the actual length, a calculation isperformed to determine the location of the next LDL frame's length andCRC-16 value octets, in order to perform the comparison again for thesubsequent frame. If the comparison is also successful, then it isassumed synchronization has been achieved for the LDL frame stream.

[0307] Prior art has noted that some transmission methods encounterdifficulty in transmitting lengthy successions of identical data values,and as a result methods of scrambling data have been developed.Scrambling data to be transported over a network increases the densityof shifts from binary value “1” to “0” and vice-versa in any givenstream of data. Scrambling is accomplished by coupling data streams withscrambling patterns to produce data patterns that contain enoughshifting to reduce transmission problems. Due to the nature of thephysical transport of the present invention, there may be a limitedneed, if any, to implement scrambling within LDL in preparation for thetransmission of data over.

[0308] Network PDU frames define network elements encapsulated withinLDL and transported between devices capable of using the LDL protocol.Charts 10 through 13 define PDU frame outlines for Network PDU types,such as, but not limited to, Ethernet and MPEG, that can be containedwithin the LDL Data area for transport. CHART 10 ETHERNET 802.3 StartFrame Dest. MAC Source MAC MAC Client Frame Check Preamble DelimiterAddress Address Length/Type Data Pad Sequence 7 octets 1 octet 6 octets6 octets 2 octets <=1.5 K 4 octets

[0309] The Ethernet 802.3 minimum frame size is 64 octets, and themaximum frame size is 1518 octets. It should be noted Ethernet standardsdo not include the preamble or start frame delimiter as part of framelength. CHART 11 ETHERNET VIRTUAL LOCAL AREA NETWORK (VLAN) 802.3acStart Dest. Source 802.1 Tag MAC Frame Frame MAC MAC Q Tag ControlLength/ Client Check Preamble Delimiter Address Address Type Info TypeData Pad Sequence 7 octets 1 octet 6 octets 6 octets 2 octets 2 octets 2octets <=1.5 K 4 octets

[0310] The minimum Ethernet Virtual Local Area Network (VLAN) 802.acframe size is 64 octets, and the maximum frame size is 1522 octets. Itshould also be noted that some references to length for Ethernet do notinclude the preamble or start frame delimiter. CHART 12 Gigabit Ethernet802.3z Start Dest. Source MAC Frame Frame MAC MAC Client Check PreambleDelimiter Address Address Length/Type Data Pad Sequence Extension 7octets 1 octet 6 octets 6 octets 2 octets <=1.5 K 4 octets

[0311] The frame size for Gigabit Ethernet 802.3z remains the sameEthernet 802.3 with the exception that the length from the DestinationMAC Address field through the Extension field is a minimum of 512octets.

[0312] The following chart defines the structure for an MPEG TransportPDU. CHART 13 MPEG Transport PDU Header Payload >= 4 octets <188octets - header size

[0313] In the future, the LDL protocol is designed to be flexible enoughto handle Ethernet Jumbo frames that have a maximum size of 9,000octets.

[0314] Since LDL is built upon the constructs of SDL, an LDL frame canbe switched to a SONET network in its current format, with little or nomodifications to the LDL frame. However, the payload may requirescrambling prior to placement onto a SONET network.

[0315] The encapsulation of an Ethernet network PDU into LDL involves nomanipulation of the original Ethernet network PDU with the exceptionthat the preamble, start frame delimiter, pad and frame check sequencewill not be transported. Because they will not be carried in the LDLpayload, they will be reconstructed on the far-end after arriving viathe transport.

[0316]FIG. 8 illustrates the encapsulation of Ethernet Network PDU in anLDL packet.

[0317]FIG. 9 illustrates a flow chart of LDL packets being transportedover a network of the present invention.

[0318] An Ethernet network PDU switching table is required on themultiplexer in a telephone central office, or CATV head end, or a deviceacting as a director for the transport of an Ethernet network PDU to thecorrect device. When a device or service is provisioned a MAC or networkprotocol specific address will be assigned to a particular LDL streamID. FIG. 9 illustrates the flow of a network PDU originating from anetwork interconnect on the CO side through the transport fabric to aCustomer Premise Equipment (CPE) device.

[0319] The Ethernet network PDU Address to LDL Stream ID Table containsmapping information required to create a LDL frame. In addition, thenetwork PDU is encapsulated into the LDL frame after which the LDL frameis subsequently routed to the appropriate device. In the case ofEthernet, the CO device will maintain a pool of MAC addresses to assignthem to CPE devices in a manner to be detailed later.

[0320]FIG. 10 is a flow chart illustrating Ethernet Network PDUs todevice switching.

[0321] The encapsulation of an MPEG-2 Transport (TS) network PDU intoLDL involves no manipulation of the original MPEG-2 PDU. The transportof the MPEG-2 PDU while not exactly identical as the Ethernet PDU, stillinvolves the encapsulation of the MPEG-2 PDU into LDL and transport onthe LDL transport similarly to FIG. 10 above.

[0322]FIG. 11 is an illustration of an MPEG-2 TS PDU encapsulated in anLDL packet.

[0323] Unlike the Ethernet transport requirements, the MPEGencapsulation into LDL will occur outside of the LDL transport core. TheLDL transport core system will receive MPEG-2 TS packets alreadyencapsulated into LDL. The primary purpose for this design is to:

[0324] Reduce scope of LDL transport core to transport focus activity

[0325] Move application and service control to application components tooutside the LDL transport

[0326]FIG. 12 is a flow chart illustrating of a system configured todeliver video feeds via streams to an end user. The first component isthe system that contains the CO and CPE devices for transmitting LDLframes over the transport. The second is the Ethernet system thatillustrates the transmission of Ethernet network PDUs between the COnetwork inter-connect and the client connected to the CPE device. Thethird component is the MPEG-based video broadcast application used tobroadcast MPEG-2 transport (TS) frames from a video head to a set topbox (STB) located off the CPE device.

[0327] It is important to note that the system is focused predominantlyon transport while the application control logic for video feedselection and other value-added features such as on-demand video andaudio is provided by application systems inter-connected to theframework via a high-speed interconnect such as SONET or GigabitEthernet. SONET will be able to accommodate LDL packets created withinthe video application easily since LDL is derived from SDL, which hasbeen originally created for use within SONET networks.

[0328] The STB or other video application device will be enabled to sendmessages back to the video system via LDL which will then be forwardedback to the CO based video head-end and its management system. Thisinterconnect can be done as SONET as well.

[0329] Each connection between the CPE and CO will have at least onevideo stream if video is incorporated into that particularconfiguration. If the transport is supplying video for more than onevideo device at the CPE location, then there are several differentconfigurations possible:

[0330] All video MPEG frames are multiplexed onto one stream. Thisconfiguration is illustrated in FIG. 12. In this configuration, if fourvideo feeds are required at the CPE side, then all four video feeds willbe assigned to the one stream assigned for MPEG/video feeds and thesingle feed of multiplexed MPEG frames are extracted from the LDL framesand sent to the CPE video application, for example an STB. Thisconfiguration is preferable where one video application or STB is usedfor managing all video feeds.

[0331] All video MPEG frames are assigned their individual stream. Inthis configuration, if four video feeds are required at the CPE side,then all four video feeds are assigned their own stream. Once the CPEdevice receives the frame for a particular stream, it will extract theMPEG frame from LDL and send it to the CPE video application, forexample a STB, that is inter-connected to the device assigned to thatparticular MPEG feed. This configuration is preferable where a videoapplication or STB is required for each video feed or MPEG stream.

[0332] One skilled in the art having the benefit of this disclosure willrealize that “data storage” refers to a comprehensive list of methodsand systems for the storing of data and information. This can includemethods such as the use of files, ASCII files, databases, relationaldatabases, indexed-based databases, CD, magnetic storage, opticalstorage, distributed data and databases, replicated data and databases,RAM, ROM, reverberating data storage, cache, and local or remote storagesystems.

[0333] In addition the data can be represented in many formats includingbut not limited to binary, ASCII, EBCDIC, foreign-language sets, MPEG,MPEG-2, MP3, text and XML. Data can be organized or not organized andcan be stored in some form of database including ones such as but notlimited to Oracle, Sybase, Microsoft SQL, MySQL, Velocis, Ingres,Postgres, Chaotic Databases, and proprietary non-public database methodsand systems.

[0334] In addition, one skilled in the art will also note that“information exchange” refers to the transfer of information over avariety of possible transports between one or more entities. Transportsfor “information exchange” include, but are not limited to wireline orwireless networks including fiber, SONET, Ethernet, Gigabit Ethernet,CDMA, Ultra-Wide Band, MegaBand, internal and external bus, Infiniband,Advanced TCA, Periperal Component Interconnect (PCI), etc. The“information exchange ” transport can include many different protocolsincluding but not limited to IP-based protocols, TCP/IP, IP, SystemsNetwork Architecture (SNA), FTP, HTTP, IPX/SPX, Netbui, Novell, etc.

[0335] “Information exchange” includes, but is not limited to data,text, records, files and other forms of electronically encoded data.

[0336] The entities within the definition of “information exchange”include elements that comprise the preferred embodiment, sub-systems orsub-elements of an element(s) within the preferred embodiment. Inaddition, an entity can include a third-party system or sub-system(s) ofa third-party system.

[0337] “Information exchange” also includes methodologies andthird-party products such as, but not limited to XML, SOAP, CORBA,Tibco, Middle-layer, grid computing, DCE, etc. Furthermore, “informationexchange” includes the use of private-proprietary and public-standardformats and secure methods, including but not limited to encryption andsecure socket layer (SSL).

[0338] “Information exchange” also includes a push methodology whereinformation is pushed to one or more elements from one or more elements.Conversely, “information exchange” can include a methodology whereinformation is pulled from one or more elements to one or more elements.

[0339] The management system described as follows is designed for use inthe present invention's preferred embodiment on telephone twisted pairnetworks, particularly considering the impact of high bandwidth/userbecoming available. The management system has been designed to be easilyadaptable to other embodiments of the present invention including, butnot limited to, CATV networks.

[0340] The services management system 1400, as shown in FIG. 14,includes a plurality of service applications that can be a combinationof one or more computer applications, software modules, computerprograms including: billing and revenue applications 1403, operationsand management applications 1404, service and customer provisioningapplications 1405, marketing and sales support applications, quality ofservice (QoS) applications 1407.

[0341] One skilled in the art can realize that the service applicationswithin the services management system 1400 can depend and integrate withother service applications. Examples of this would be the need for themarketing sales and support 1406 needing to access customer accountinformation and procedures contained in the service and customerprovisioning applications 1405 and billing and revenue applications1403.

[0342] In addition, the service applications may require supportiveelements that reside on other elements outside of the servicesmanagement system 1400. These other elements can include othercomponents of the preferred embodiment such as, but not limited to, themultiplexer 1700 as shown in FIG. 17 and line interface device codec 361as shown in. FIG. 3 and FIG. 4

[0343] Other supportive elements for service applications within theservices management system 130 can include third-party systems anddatabases that reside outside the preferred embodiment. Examples ofthese include, but are not limited to video and audio service providers,gaming providers, application service providers (ASP), e-mail services,unified messaging, emergency broadcast and notification, etc.

[0344] The hardware architecture of the services management system 130can consist of a centralized, distributed or grid computing model andcan include a combination of one or more processing devices s such as,but not limited to mainframes such as IBM 3090, IBM RS/6000, PC's,workstations such as H/P, Sun, Compaq.

[0345] Each processing device can dictate the operating systemrequirements and options. The operating options include, but are notlimited to the many of the variants of Unix, e.g. Red Hat Linux andHP-UX, IBM mainframe operating systems, e.g. MVS/TSO, Microsoft Windows,embedded operating systems such as eCos, VxWorks, QNX and hardware.

[0346] In addition, the hardware architecture can consist of centralizedor distributed media storage devices. These media devices can includestandard magnetic storage systems such as disk, diskette and tape,optical storage systems, media storage arrays, cache and memory. Thesestorage media devices can be local or remote to the processing devicesand can be interconnected to one or more of the hardware devices overlocal bus such as SCSI, PCI, Infiniband, networked bus such as iSCSI,FiberChannel, communications protocols such as NFS and TCP/IP.

[0347] The data for the service management system 130 components can bestored in standard file formats, e.g. ASCII text, binary, compressed,etc., in memory or in a database such as but not limited to Oracle,Sybase, Microsoft Access, MySQL, DataSpace and a chaotic database.

[0348] In support of some of the service management system 1400 andassociated service applications. Third-party application packages andengines can be implemented in full or part including, but not limited toMatrixsoft's eMatrix for expediting business processes, Amdocs forcustomer care and billing, PeopleSoft, Siebel and Athene softwareproducts for customer care and support systems, and on-line shoppingtechnologies such as shopping carts, credit card processing and Internetweb servers such as Apache.

[0349] Additional software developed for the service management system1400 and associated service applications can be created in a pluralityof software languages including C, C++, PHP, ASP Vbscript, Java, SQL,embedded SQL, OBDC, COBOL and can include the use of various applicationprogramming interfaces provided by third-party products such as

[0350] Customer Interface 1409 into the service management system 1400and service applications can occur via a plurality of methods including,but not limited to a web browser, a PDA, a telephone and a cell phone.In addition, user access or service management system 1400 requestsoriginating from components in the preferred embodiment such as aset-top box, or Internet appliance, etc. can be received from theMultiplexer 1700 as shown in FIG. 3 and FIG. 4.

[0351] The billing and revenue support system 1403 provides support forthe many facets of billing and revenue including, but not limited tobilling, rates management, processing and rating of user usage records,the management of product and services packages (plans, promotions,discounts, volume), sales commissions, taxes, etc.

[0352] Operation and Maintenance (OAM) 1404—Elements of the preferredembodiment of the present invention will collect and maintaininformation related to providing insight to the performance andoperational aspects of the preferred embodiment.

[0353] Examples of performance and operation indicators include, but arenot limited to statistics for transactions, network transaction, memoryusage, processor usage, user access information, database transaction,input/output transactions (bus, disk, network, card), disk transactions,cache transactions, network usage, network overflow, network re-routes,network blockage and service interruptions.

[0354] OAM information may be stored via means outlined above under“data storage” either on the devices where the OAM indicators aremonitored and collected or they can be pushed to a “data storage”element within the preferred embodiment or on a third-party system.

[0355] Likewise, OAM information may be exchanged as outlined aboveunder the definition of “information exchange” with other servicemanagement system 1400 applications such as quality of serviceapplication 1407. In addition, OAM can exchange information as outlinedabove under the definition of “information exchange” with third-partysystems within a Network Operations Center (NOC) such as but not limitedto an HP OpenView or other network monitoring and operational systems.

[0356] Service Provisioning Application 1405—Service provisioningapplications 1405 are responsible for the provisioning of services tousers of the preferred embodiment. When a user wishes to add, delete orchange services such as Internet and video services the servicemanagement system's 1400 provisioning applications 1405 are largelyresponsible for the managing the change request among the manycomponents that compose the preferred embodiment.

[0357] For example, if a user wishes to add Internet service, theservice provisioning applications 1405 will issue a request to theMultiplexer 1700 to allocate resources and perform other operations thatenable the transmission of Internet services between an end-user and theInternet. In addition, the service provisioning applications 1405 willsend a request to end-user's interface device 361 as shown in FIGS. 3and 4, instructing it to allocate resources and perform procedures thatenable Internet services. There could be additional requests from theservice provisioning application 1405 to any one or more preferredembodiment components for allocating resources and performing serviceenabling procedures.

[0358] In addition, the service provisioning application 1405 mayrespond to requests and issue requests to any of the other servicemanagement applications in the support of provisioning services.

[0359] In some cases, the provisioning of services for a user couldrequire resource allocation and service enabling requests to third-partysystems and services that access the preferred embodiment including, butnot limited to video feeds, Internet services and telephony service.

[0360] For example, if a user wishes to subscribe to a particular musicstreaming service that is provided and access is controlled by athird-party service provider, then the service provisioning application1405 would request the third-party service provider to begin sending aparticular music stream to the service management system 1400, or themultiplexer 1700 on behalf of the user who requested the service.

[0361] Similarly, if a user decides to end the music stream subscriptionservice, then the Service Provisioning application 1405 would send arequest to the third-party service provider.

[0362] Any method of communicating instructions between the managementsystem 1400 and the third-party service providers.

[0363] A request for the Service Provisioning System 1405 may originatefrom any of the interconnected components to the management system 1400.

[0364] Upon receipt of a service provisioning request, the ServiceProvisioning System 1405 may send additional requests to the othersystems shown in FIG. 14.

[0365] Marketing and Sales Support 1406—Marketing and Sales Support 1406application of the service management system 1400 is responsible for thecollection and processing of information as it is related to marketingand sales analysis. For example, usage information regarding theservices provided by the present invention can be analyzed individuallyor in aggregate to determine the popularity of services and other usermetrics for tailoring the preferred embodiment's service offerings, userservice packages, etc.

[0366] In addition, the Marketing and Sales Support 1406 component mayinclude the use of third-party systems including but not limited toAthene's iCRM suite, APT Churn™ and APT Profitability™ software productsto determine profitability of products and churn of customer services.These third-party systems may or may not be co-located with the servicemanagement system 1400 and may include the use of sharing or exchangingof data contained within the preferred embodiment.

[0367] Also, the Marketing and Sales Support 1406 system may include theuse of web site statistics and logging utilities such as but not limitedto WebTrends to analyze the use of web-enabled products and services ofthe preferred embodiment.

[0368] Quality of Service 1407—Quality of Service application 1407 isresponsible for managing resources and other components within thepreferred embodiment to provide quality of service to the users of thepreferred embodiment. Depending on a variety of parameters, includingbut not limited to user service level agreements (SLAs), quality ofservice required for product and services provided or supplied by thepreferred embodiment, the quality of service application 1407 is largelyresponsible for the managing the quality of service oriented requestsamong the many components that comprise the present invention.

[0369] If the Quality of Service application 1407 determines the need toadjust the level of resources and/or the performance on behalf ofuser(s) of the preferred embodiment, the quality of service application1407 will issue such requests to the required elements, serviceapplications and third-party systems.

[0370] In addition, if one or more operations among one or more of thepreferred embodiment elements, service management system applicationsand/or third-party systems are required in support of quality ofservice, then the quality of service application 1407 will issue therequired requests to the required elements, service applicationsand/third-party systems.

[0371] Web Enabled Products and Services 1408—As previously noted, thereare several access methods into the preferred embodiment of the presentinvention. Among those listed are web-based services and products thatare typically accessed by a browser-enabled device such as, but notlimited to a computer or personal digital assistant (PDA.) These devicestypically run some form of browser software such as but not limited toMicrosoft's Internet Explorer or Netscape's browser.

[0372] By web-enabling the applications in whole or in part, a user ofthe preferred embodiment can access segments of the service managementsystem's 1400 applications. Web enabling an application implies that theuser can control components segments an application via the use of abrowser.

[0373] Examples of web-enabled application segments within the preferredembodiment include, but are not limited to accessing and modifying useraccount and billing information, accessing customer care and helpapplications such as on-line chat, instant messaging and help web-pages,subscription services such as requesting an on-demand multi-media feedand the ordering services and products, etc.

[0374]FIG. 15 is a block diagram of a transmitter according to oneembodiment of the present invention. FIG. 16 is a block diagram of areceiver according to one embodiment of the present invention. Thetransmitter and receiver of the present invention consists of thefollowing functional items including but not limited to configuration,systems operations and management, pulse generation, pulse traingeneration, signal processing including filtering and correlation, pulsesynchronization, software management and configuration, feature control,Ethernet configuration, development and real-time debuggingcapabilities, and network switching and routing capabilities.

[0375] The transmitter and receiver can be constructed of hardware andsoftware components to create the above functionality including, but notlimited to: field programmable gate arrays (FPGA), FPGA IntellectualProperty cores, ASIC, processors, device drivers, digital signalprocessors (DSPs), Ethernet, FireWire, Open Peripheral Bus, DMA, realtime operating systems (RTOS), debug ports, Microkernel, memory (RAM,ROM, Flash, disk), memory management, file management, digital to analogconverters, analog to digital converters, phased-locked loops, clocksand other standard electrical components, boards and housing one skilledin the art would recognize as required to integrate components into atransmitter and receiver.

[0376]FIG. 17 is a block diagram of a multiplexer. Multiplexer 1700 iscapable of combining two or more incoming data feeds A, B, and C onto acommon transmission medium connected to I/O ports A, B, and C on linecards 1704, 1704′, 1704″, and 1704′″. The multiplexer 1700 is capable oftime division, code, and/or frequency division multiplexing.

[0377] Multiplexer 1700 is comprised of a control plane subsystem 1701,data plane subsystem 1702, trunk card 1703 (only one is shown forclarity), and line cards 1704, 1704′, 1704″, 1704′″. Line Cards 1704,1704′, 1704″, 1704′″ are comprised of transmitter 1500 and receiver 1600as shown in FIGS. 15 and 16.

[0378]FIG. 18 illustrates the basic components of line interface device361. The line interface device 361 is comprised of a transceiver, whichis comprised of a transmitter 1500 and receiver 1600, ports forconnecting to transmission mediums 1801, 1802, a port for connected tosignal wire 1807, an optional processor 1810 and optional memory 1820.The line interface device's transceiver handles the transmission andreceipt of data signals between a user's device, such as, but notlimited to a PC, set-top box, etc. (not shown), and multiplexer 1700 asshown in FIG. 17, FIGS. 3, 4, and 5 via transmission medium 1801.Transmission medium 1801 is a metallic guided medium such as, but notlimited to, telephone twisted pair, coaxial cable, CAT-5 cable, powerline, etc, but excludes fiber optic and wireless mediums.

[0379] A user connects a device (not shown) such as, but not limited toa PC, set-top box, or home networking router, to a port on the lineinterface device 361 via transmission medium 1802 in order to transmitand receive data from a remote source. The ports for transmission medium1802 may include, but are not limited to an RJ-11 jack for telephonetwisted pair, an RJ-45 jack for an Ethernet connection, IEEE 1394 FireWire connection, USB, RS-232, a PCMCIA slot, fiber optic, etc. ThePCMCIA slot can be used as a wireless integration point for systems suchas, but not limited to, Bluetooth, 802.11a, 802.11b, ultra wideband,etc. Only one port for transmission medium 1802 is shown for clarity,but the line interface device may be configured with any combination ofadditional ports as required.

[0380] A general description of the present invention, a description ofa laboratory prototype, as well as a preferred embodiment, andalternative embodiments and aspects of the present invention has beenset forth above. Those skilled in the art to which the present inventionpertains will recognize and be able to practice additional variations inthe methods and systems described which fall within the teachings ofthis invention. Accordingly, all such modifications and additions aredeemed to be within the scope of the invention, which is to be limitedonly by the claims, appended hereto.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method of data transmission, comprising: representing data using at least one pulse based on a Gaussian wave form; sending the at least one pulse over an electrically conductive guided media; recovering the data from the at least one pulse.
 2. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of representing data includes representing data by modifying a time domain signature associated with each of the at least one pulse.
 3. The method of claim 1 wherein the at least one pulse includes a plurality of pulses and variable spaces between the pulses are used to represent data.
 4. The method of claim 1 wherein variable pulse characteristics of the at least one pulse are used to represent data.
 5. The method of claim 1 wherein the guided media is selected from the set comprising a coaxial cable, a telephone twisted pair, a category 5 cable, a power line, and a metallic body.
 6. The method of claim 1 further comprising sending a wave-based transmission over the guided media.
 7. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of recovering the data from the at least one pulse includes recovering the data from the at least one pulse at least partially based on a time domain signature of the at least one pulse.
 8. The method of claim 1 further comprising selecting characteristics of the Gaussian wave form at least partially based on the guided medium.
 9. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of representing data includes applying an m-ary modulation scheme based on timing of the at least one pulse.
 10. The method of claim 9 wherein m is an integer of at least
 2. 11. A method of data transmission, comprising: creating a plurality of pulses based on a Gaussian waveform, the pulses having a time domain signature and a wideband frequency domain signature; sending the plurality of pulses over an electrically conducting guided media simultaneously with sending wave-based transmissions over the guided media.
 12. The method of claim 11 wherein the guided media is a cable line.
 13. The method of claim 11 wherein the guided media is a telephone line.
 14. The method of claim 11 further comprising receiving the plurality of pulses and extracting data associated with the plurality of pulses.
 15. A method of data transmission, comprising: representing data using at least one pulse of a duration between approximately 0.50025 ns to 2650 ns and the at least one pulse being based on a Gaussian wave form; sending the at least one pulse over an electrically conductive guided media; recovering the data from the at least one pulse by applying correlation to determine locations associated with the at least on pulse.
 16. The method of claim 15 wherein the electrically conductive guided media is selected from the set comprising a coaxial cable, a telephone twisted pair, a category 5 cable, a power line, and a metallic body.
 17. A method of data transmission for telephony applications, comprising: representing data using at least one pulse based on a Gaussian wave form, the at least one pulse having a pulse width selected at least partially based on radiation associated with a telephone twisted pair; sending the at least one pulse over the telephone twisted pair; recovering the data from the at least one pulse; sending wave-based transmissions over the telephone twisted pair concurrently with the sending of the at least one pulse over the telephone twisted pair.
 18. The method of claim 17 wherein each of the at least one pulse has a center channel frequency of between about 300 KHz and about 150 MHz.
 19. A method of data transmission over cable television lines, comprising: representing data using at least one pulse based on a Gaussian wave form, the at least one pulse having a pulse width selected at least partially based on radiation associated with a cable television line; sending the at least one pulse over the cable television line; recovering the data from the at least one pulse; sending wave-based transmissions over the cable television line concurrently with the sending of the at least one pulse over the telephone twisted pair.
 20. The method of claim 19 wherein each of the at least one pulse has a center channel frequency of between about 300 KHz and about 2 GHz.
 21. A method of data transmission over a data bus, comprising: representing data using at least one pulse based on a Gaussian wave form; sending the at least one pulse over the data bus; recovering the data from the at least one pulse; sending separate signals over the data bus concurrently with the sending of the at least one pulse over the data bus.
 22. The method of claim 21 wherein the data bus is associated with an automotive vehicle.
 23. A system for data communication, comprising: an electrically conductive guided medium; a plurality of line interface devices operatively connected to the electrically conductive guided medium; each of the plurality of line interface devices comprising a transmitter for transmitting data using at least one pulse based on a Gaussian wave form and sending the at least one pulse of the electrically conductive medium, a receiver for receiving at least one pulse based on a Gaussian waveform, a processor operatively connected to the receiver and the transmitter for representing data as the at least one pulse and for recovering data based on the at least one received pulse, and a memory operatively connected to the processor.
 24. An apparatus for data communication, comprising: a transmitter operatively connected to an electrically conductive guided media for transmitting data using at least one pulse based on a Gaussian wave form and sending the at least one pulse of the electrically conductive medium; a receiver operatively connected to the electrically conductive guided media for receiving at least one pulse based on a Gaussian waveform; a processor operatively connected to the receiver and the transmitter for representing data as the at least one pulse and for recovering data based on the at least one received pulse; and a memory operatively connected to the processor. 